CONTEXT 176 : JUNE 2023 43 Director’s cut Amenity, Benefit and Conservation: an ABC of an IHBC charter petition The IHBC’s exploration of chartering centres first on scoping and, if agreed by members, preparing and submitting a ‘petition’ that makes the case for the grant of a Royal Charter. This is an action committed to as part of our 2020 AGM-adopted Corporate Plan 2020–25 (CP25), which calls for the investigation of issues around ‘chartered status internally and externally...’ Our membership controls each stage of this still-nascent petitioning journey, and we cannot know if the process will either generate a formal petition or, even if so, secure a charter for the IHBC. As with a planning application, the request is not granted just because it has been sought. After a formal petition, the award of charter is dependent on measured support from peers and stakeholders, while also lying wholly within the gift of the monarch and Privy Council. For the IHBC, the main threat in this exercise could be taken to be a potential waste of investment – with no dividend – if the charter is not secured. Fortunately, our scoping of the charter process to date has made it clear that, properly planned, the petition itself should bring substantial benefits to the IHBC, our members, and their conservation work, all regardless of any chartering outcome. The very process of drawing up a petition is a perfect way to advance some of the most challenging ambitions in the IHBC’s current (and previous) corporate plans. Conversations with officers at the Privy Council Office have stressed the essential priority in granting a charter to be its public interest and, by extension, public benefit. There must be, as they say, ‘a convincing case that it would be in the public interest to regulate the body’ through a charter. A petition that specifies the public benefits brought by the IHBC also benefits the institute, our members, and all our collective and diverse works and advocacy. In conservation practice, for example, the value of working with the IHBC and our members is framed around the public benefit at the most fundamental levels. That our conservationrelated work delivers benefits resoundingly in the public interest is recognised in our charitable status and overseen by charity regulators. Public benefit has also shaped the headline ambitions in our planning since our first AGM-approved Corporate Plan, of 2007, which groups our actions under headings of helping people; helping conservation; and helping conservation specialists. Yet too often even we forget to emphasise the role of the institute and our members in delivering public benefits. Perhaps we allow others to miss it by taking it too much for granted, perhaps because we do not drill down sufficiently into just why our unique brand of conservation is so important in adding dividends on behalf of society. Ultimately, the IHBC delivers on that public interest and benefit primarily through the support and advocacy we offer for our particular approach to conservation. Our holistic, integrated, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practice model and standards aim to deliver sustainable, quality outcomes within no less complex crosscutting systems and processes: social, cultural, economic, environmental and – inevitably in planning – political. But we can not expect other heritage bodies to have regard to our special nature if we do not press our message. And if we fail to advance that message across the sectors within which we ourselves operate, how can we expect any client, employer or indeed government body to register fully the benefits of our approach? To make the case for public interest effectively, we need to gather evidence and specify the case around the special public benefit the work of the institute and our members delivers. Clearly, too, enhancing awareness of how our values operate in and deliver on the public interest, brings us huge benefits, regardless of any charter outcomes. Such work can help us actually deliver on the longstanding and worthy – if wordy – corporate ‘vision and mission’, that: ‘The IHBC should be universally recognised as the lead body advocating and supporting built and historic environment conservation practitioners, their specialist interests and standards, their ethical objectives, and the diverse benefits of their work.’ Articulating that public benefit and public good directly boosts client and employer interest in our members and their work. For example, highlighting the public interest of the IHBC in a petition for charter will help pin down the message that using an IHBC-aligned provider is simply the easiest way to help make a difference to some of the biggest challenges in society today. How often do we make clear
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