Published today, Grosvenor’s latest report Retrofit or Ruin warns that England’s three million listed buildings and properties in conservation areas are being held back from basic energy-efficient upgrades by complex and inconsistent planning regulations.
According to the report, retrofitting listed properties and buildings in conservation areas in England and Wales could deliver around 30% of the annual emissions reductions needed to meet the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget.
Retrofit or Ruin calls for the biggest reform of English heritage planning in over 35 years, shifting the system from a case-by-case control to proactive enablement, helping to unlock the full potential of our historic building stock.
Tor Burrows, Chief Sustainability Officer at Grosvenor, said:
“Historic buildings only survive if they can adapt. If they are cold, expensive to run and difficult to upgrade, they risk falling into disuse. Once that happens, heritage is lost.
The real issue now is speed and scale. Retrofitting historic buildings needs to happen across millions of buildings, not slowly, one application at a time.
Whilst local authorities undoubtedly face significant resource constraints, a system that requires individual approvals for low risk, routine retrofit interventions which are almost always approved but takes months to do so is no longer protecting heritage, it is holding back climate action.”
Read more in The Times.