Do I need a Heritage Statement or Assessment?

Our key specialist heritage reports are completed according to Historic England guidelines and other requirements, they include:

Statements of Heritage Significance (or Heritage Statements)  These will examine your historic asset and provides a summary of its overall heritage value. If prepared when considering a future planning application, it will make specific reference to those aspects of its significance that will be most directly affected by your proposals and their contribution to the whole.

Historic Impact Assessment (HIA) If your Planning Applications is submitted without an HIA, in the circumstances listed below it’s likely to be considered invalid and will not be registered or will be refused. 

This document assesses the significance of the heritage assets within the area of the proposal and reviews this against the proposal for new work. It is a thorough examination of what impact the proposal might have on the historic environment, what harm might come from it and how it can be mitigated against. This document is typically required to be submitted with your planning application. We work in colloboration with your designer or architect to ensure this process can be as smooth as possible.

Historic Building Records are often required for one or more of the following reasons:

• to secure an understanding of a building and its significance to inform the preparation of a scheme of conservation, repair or alteration.
• to inform decisions relating to the approval or implementation of a scheme of development as part of the planning or conservation process.
• to document buildings, or parts of buildings, which will be lost as a result of demolition, alteration or neglect.
• to assess the significance of groups of buildings, settlements, and landscapes, and provide a basis for strategic heritage management.
• to provide underpinning data for thematic, topographic, or period-specific works of synthesis by recording a sample of surviving structures.