Context 169 - September 2021

C O N T E X T 1 6 9 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 13 FROM THE BOTTOM UP When we asked our members how they had coped through the period of Covid-19 restric- tions, some had not been affected at all, some had been fully compensated by measures such as furloughing and emergency funding, a propor- tion had lost out financially, and a very small number were facing an existential crisis. This illustrates how diverse are the needs of our members in terms of government action and public policy. However, in many respects our members’ needs are no different from those of the rest of the heritage sector (our members get as frustrated by the VAT regime as any oth- ers). As a lean organisation, the Heritage Trust Network puts its energies into providing advice and guidance to our members, and facilitating peer support and networking. We support other bodies such as the Heritage Alliance and IHBC to lobby government on the sector’s behalf. Where we do think we have a campaigning and advocacy job to do, is in raising awareness of the potential of community-led heritage initiatives to providing solutions to many of the challenges our society is currently facing. Take the crisis in our high streets. A number of our members are leading local efforts to bring new life into town and city centres, hit by out-of-town, then online retail and, more recently, by Covid-19. As centres find a new future which is not as a place to go to deal with the necessities of life, but as destinations for culture, leisure, hospitality and diverse interactions with other humans, historic streetscapes provide a compellingly authentic setting. Historic Coventry Trust is managing the national demonstrator project for the high street heritage action zones, restoring 15 build- ings in the Burges and Hale Street in a vibrant streetscape full of independent businesses. These are among the 22 buildings that Historic Coventry is working on in a ground-breaking asset-transfer initiative. While changes in funding regimes, econom- ics and the market for historic buildings has seen a decline in the traditional ‘revolving’ model of building preservation trusts, this new generation of multi-project trusts is proving its worth to local economies. Recognising this, our colleagues in the Architectural Heritage Fund have developed the Heritage Development Trust initiative to highlight the role that these dynamic building preservation trusts can play in high-street regeneration. For regeneration professionals, and politicians, the traditional answer to town-centre decline was comprehen- sive redevelopment, a new shopping centre or an anchor store. Our challenge is to persuade them that we are entering a new era where a more fine-grained approach is required, with quality of place at its core. As we emerge from the pandemic, the impor- tance of outdoor spaces in sustaining people’s mental health and general wellbeing has been widely recognised. For many of our members with outdoor spaces these have been the only parts of their sites able to welcome visitors for much of the past year.This is another area where historic environments have untapped potential to contribute to public policy goals. Riverside House Stourbridge is an organisa- tion that has taken over a post-industrial river and canalside site historically associated with the steel industry. It has not yet restored the historic buildings on its site but is already pro- viding what has been recognised by local public health officials as a flagship health and wellbeing centre, offering therapeutic craft and land-based activities for people with a variety of needs. Similarly,The Ridge, an organisation in Dunbar, Scotland, is providing training in traditional skills for people with troubled backgrounds while restoring high-street buildings and provid- ing volunteering opportunities for local residents in community gardens created in the burgage plots behind them. Whether it is reborn building preservation trusts working dynamically, in partnership with local councils, to turn the problem of buildings at risk into an opportunity for regeneration, or community organisations using the historic envi- ronment as a platform for initiatives to improve people’s health and wellbeing, the network’s members are injecting a new sense of purpose into conservation. Our challenge is to raise awareness of that potential in local and national government, and among policy and decision makers more widely. David Tittle is chief executive of the Heritage Trust Network. Apprentices and a trainee for the Ridge Foundations working on a Historic Environment Scotland project in North Berwick (Photo: The Ridge)