Committee publication · Correspondence · 9 September 2025

Letter from Ben Cowell OBE, Director General, Historic Houses, regarding protecting built heritage oral evidence follow-up, 18 June 2025

From: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Summary

Ben Cowell, Director General of Historic Houses, follows up on oral evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's built heritage inquiry. He argues that private owners manage two-thirds to three-quarters of UK heritage assets, drawing parallels to the 1950 Gowers Report. Cowell proposes government support through grants, fiscal incentives, reduced regulatory burdens, and targeted intervention for abandoned buildings, rather than direct state ownership.

Key findings

Private sector owns and manages between two-thirds and three-quarters of all UK heritage assets; Historic Houses represents ~1,400 grade I and II* buildings, seven times the National Trust's mansion count
The 1950 Gowers Report concluded government intervention was justified but ownership unfeasible; instead proposed grants and fiscal relief—a model Cowell argues remains sound 75 years later
Abandoned former industrial buildings in city locations represent genuine market failure requiring targeted state and local authority intervention
Historic Houses proposes: expanded listed building consent order use to reduce regulatory burden; VAT rebate scheme for heritage buildings open to public; reconsideration of planned Agricultural and Business Property Relief reductions from April 2026; DCMS Heritage Council focus on heritage skills shortages

Tone

Procedural

Topics

cultural-heritageplanning-regulationpublic-financeprivate-sector-policytax-incentives

Key actors

Ben Cowell OBE, Historic Houses, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sir Ernest Gowers, National Trust, Historic England

Notable line

“… most heritage in the UK is owned and managed within the private sector. I would estimate that between two-thirds and three-quarters of all heritage assets are owned privately.”

Key Quotes

“… most heritage in the UK is owned and managed within the private sector. I would estimate that between two-thirds and three-quarters of all heritage assets are owned privately.”
— Ben Cowell OBE · Establishing the scale of private heritage ownership

“The dominance of the private sector in managing and maintaining heritage is not a new phenomenon. It was observed 75 years ago, when a committee chaired by Sir Ernest Gowers published the findings of its own investigation into protecting built heritage.”
— Ben Cowell OBE · Contextualising private ownership within historical precedent

“… by far the most efficient and effective means of caring for heritage was for government to provide support to private owners.”
— Sir Ernest Gowers (cited by Ben Cowell OBE) · Gowers' 1950 conclusion on heritage policy approach

“Urgent solutions need to be found for some of the most intractable heritage problem cases, particularly abandoned former industrial buildings in city locations. These are the true examples of 'market failure' in heritage, where there is clearly a case for targeted intervention by the state and local authorities.”
— Ben Cowell OBE · Identifying where direct government intervention is justified

“We believe it could stand as an equivalent of the Gowers Report, for the 21 st century.”
— Ben Cowell OBE · Assessment of the committee's inquiry's potential significance

View original document →

Source · parliament.uk record ↗