Buildings at Risk
Historic buildings are an irreplaceable part of our history and contribute to our national and regional character and distinctiveness. They are so valuable, yet often so vulnerable. Once lost, they cannot be replaced. We have a responsibility to preserve these important buildings as part of our cultural heritage not only for ourselves, but for future generations.
While the planning system provides protection to prevent inappropriate change to listed buildings, greater loss of historic and architectural fabric can occur if they are neglected and allowed to decay. Preventing the effects of insidious decay and dereliction requires proactive action by all those responsible for and involved in caring for the historic environment. Heritage at Risk began with buildings. English Heritage first started work on developing a methodology to identify and categorise buildings at risk in the 1980s and carried out the first sample survey to assess the degree to which they were threatened by neglect.
