Committee publication · Correspondence · 20 January 2026
Letter from Emma Squire CBE, Co-Chief Executive, Historic England, regarding oral evidence follow-up, 13 January 2026
From: Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Inquiry: Protecting built heritage
Summary
Emma Squire CBE, Co-Chief Executive of Historic England, follows up oral evidence given to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's Protecting Built Heritage inquiry. She reiterates three core recommendations: elevating heritage's policy status to address societal challenges; ensuring sector financial resilience through government support; and reversing declines in local authority planning capacity. The letter includes a Skills Need Gap Analysis Executive Summary documenting demand for traditional building skills at £28 billion annually, with 20% of English homes built pre-1919 facing maintenance backlogs and future demand from Parliament restoration and net-zero retrofit programmes.
Key findings
- £28 billion annual market for pre-1919 building work (£15bn using traditional materials/techniques); nearly a third of pre-1919 homes fail decent homes standard versus 11% post-1920 homes
- Heritage sector needs government support for financial resilience, skills development, and to offset reduced local authority grants, lower visitor footfall, and utility cost pressures
- Over 40% of specialist contractors report recruitment difficulties; carpentry and joinery skills especially scarce; nearly a fifth turned down work due to skills shortages
- Workforce skewed toward older workers with insufficient under-35 entrants; 48 of 79 relevant qualifications discontinued or unavailable; retrofit uptake minimal at 2% of turnover
- Major future demand drivers: Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme (£500m+ annually over 19–40+ years) and net-zero retrofit needs; without intervention, skilled worker supply will diminish
Tone
FactualTopics
Key actors
Emma Squire CBE, Ian Morrison, Historic England, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), English Heritage, Historic Environment Skills Forum
Notable line
“Without intervention, the future supply of skilled workers to both maintain the country's traditional buildings and pass down skills and knowledge to the next generation will continue to diminish, putting the workforce – and our heritage – at risk.”
Key Quotes
“For heritage to have the seat at the table it deserves . Heritage is seen by many as important in its own right, but niche.”
“Government support is needed address the resilience challenges facing the heritage sector …”
“The findings laid out in this report highlight that we are headed towards a skills crisis that threatens our heritage's longevity and survival if appropriate action is not taken.”
“This seemingly positive picture does not seem to be backed up by likelihood of making the changes needed to increase the supply of traditional building skills.”
“… fewer than 40% are very or quite confident that they have the necessary skills to undertake retrofit of older buildings – a frank assessment …”
“… nearly a third of pre - 1919 homes fail to meet the decent homes standard, compared to 11% of homes constructed after”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗