CONTEXT 183 : MARCH 2025 21 WELLBEING and HERITAGE What do we know? HM Treasury’s The Green Book reshaped how UK government evaluates investment, placing greater emphasis on wellbeing. The approach, known as the Wellbeing-Adjusted Life Years (WELLBY), allows policymakers to assess the impact of policy through life satisfaction. In the simplest terms, a WELLBY represents a oneunit increase on the 1–10 life satisfaction scale sustained for one person over a year. Analysts can evaluate the effectiveness of policies by quantifying their impact on overall wellbeing, with each WELLBY valued at £15,300 at the time of writing. Heritage projects are particularly well suited to demonstrating their value through this wellbeing lens. Take the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Volunteering for Wellbeing project in Greater Manchester, which worked with people who had been long-term unemployed or socially isolated.⁴ Through volunteering and training at 10 heritage sites, 75 per cent of participants reported feeling better after a year. Importantly, for most this was not a shortterm change. Sixty per cent sustained these improvements for 2–3 years, and 30 per cent found jobs as a result. For every pound spent, the project generated an estimated £3.50 in socio-economic benefits. Two examples from Christian Krekel and Paul Fijters’ Handbook for Wellbeing PolicyMaking (2021)⁵ show how heritage supports mental health in tangible ways. In Wiltshire, the Human Henge Project worked with people managing long-term mental health conditions, inviting them to experience Stonehenge in a new way. The project evaluation and an economic review found that participants reported a 0.68-point improvement in life satisfaction. Framed through the WELLBY approach, this highlights how targeted investments in heritage can deliver marginal wellbeing gains that may exceed what traditional clinical treatments alone can achieve. Similarly, the authors’ evaluation of Hull City of Culture made a case for heritage as a wellbeing investment. Using orthodox economic metrics, the project’s net present value was evaluated at minus £4.4 million. However, when impact was framed through the lens of wellbeing, the authors found that the project delivered 28,000 WELLBYs. They estimate that the project’s true net present value stood at an impressive £247.6 million, better value than the 2012 London Olympics, for example. In the European Union, volunteering in heritage activities has been shown to increase life satisfaction.⁶ Researchers found that heritage volunteering raised the likelihood of being ‘very satisfied’ with life from 27 per cent to 33 per cent, and increased reported life satisfaction by 0.21. These wellbeing benefits extend beyond adults. Norway’s Young HUNT study demonstrated that adolescents participating in cultural activities had better mental health, higher life satisfaction and improved overall health compared to those who did not engage.⁷ Churches play a role. The House of Good report in 2020 estimated the average wellbeing value generated by a UK church at £4,712 annually, primarily driven by volunteering and community activities. Across all UK churches, this adds up to around £190 million a year — a significant contribution to national wellbeing.⁸ ⁴ The National Lottery Heritage Fund (2018) ‘Improving Futures: volunteering for wellbeing’, Heritage Fund. ⁵ Krekel, C. and Frijters, P. (2021) A Handbook for Wellbeing PolicyMaking, Springer Nature. ⁶ Ateca-Amestoy, V., et al. (2021) ‘Heritage Engagement and Subjective Well-Being in the European Union.’ Sustainability, Vol. 13, No. 17, 26 August. Available at www. mdpi.com/20711050/13/17/9623. ⁷ Hansen, E., et al. (2015) ‘Cultural activity participation and associations with self-perceived health, life satisfaction and mental health: the Young HUNT Study, Norway’, BMC Public Health 15(1). ⁸ The National Churches Trust (2020) ‘The economic and social value of church buildings to the UK: key findings and technical report’, House of Good Report. Visitors enjoying Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Gardens, which have been on the Heritage at Risk register since 2017 and are now being restored (Photo: Historic England)
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