Committee publication · Correspondence · 2 September 2025
Letter from Hilary McGrady, Director General, National Trust, regarding Protecting built heritage oral evidence follow-up, 30 July 2025
From: Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Inquiry: Protecting built heritage
Summary
National Trust Director-General Hilary McGrady provides supplementary written evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry on Protecting Built Heritage, following her July 2025 oral testimony. She expands on VAT equalisation, carbon benefits of retrofit, the proposed Safe Harbour scheme, and heritage skills gaps, citing economic studies and detailing policy recommendations across tax, training, and local authority capacity.
Key findings
- VAT reduction from 20% to 5% on renovation could generate £15.1bn stimulus to UK economy, create 95,480 jobs, and save 240,000 tonnes of CO₂; US Historic Tax Credit scheme has delivered 46,000 projects and leveraged $109.18bn in private investment since 1976.
- Historic England estimates 670,000 new homes could be created by repurposing existing buildings; current 20% price premium on retrofit compared to newbuild acts as major disincentive without government intervention.
- Retrofit of existing buildings delivers better carbon outcomes than demolition and rebuild when embodied carbon is considered; Historic England research shows potential for up to 60% emissions reductions through sympathetic refurbishment.
- Heritage skills shortage is critical blocker to government priorities including five-million-homes retrofit target; investment could create 290,000 additional jobs and £35bn annual economic output.
- Safe Harbour Scheme is in concept phase; acquisition costs estimated at under £500K, making-safe costs capped at £250K, with 5-10% administration overhead; multiple existing schemes across creative and community sectors offer learnings.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Hilary McGrady, National Trust, Dame Caroline Dinenage, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Historic England, Skills England, DEFRA
Notable line
“… a 20% price premium on refit of these buildings compared to newbuild is a strong disincentive. It is reasonable to assume that if current market conditions supported the redevelopment of these buildings, it would already be happening.”
Key Quotes
“A report undertaken by Experian in 2014 found that while a VAT reduction from 20% to 5% would come at a cost to the Treasury, it would provide a £15.1 billion stimulus to the wider UK economy, create 95,480 extra jobs and save 240,000 tonnes of CO 2 from thousands of homes.”
“Historic England estimates up to 670,000 new homes could be created by repurposing existing buildings, helping protect and conserve heritage assets and supporting a new reduction in carbon compared to new build.”
“When the whole life of the building is taken into account, including the embodied carbon within the fabric of the building, retaining and retrofitting these buildings is more efficient than demolition and re-build …”
“Research by Historic England identified substantial potential for improvements in energy efficiency in traditional buildings, finding that it could be possible to reduce emissions by up to 60% through sympathetic refurbishment and retrofit .”
“… investment in skills and capacity offers the opportunity to deliver significant economic, social and environmental benefits, including: 1) the success of government's target to retrofit five million homes over five years.”
“… apprenticeships at present do not work well for the majority of the heritage sector, which is formed of small or micro-businesses for whom the burden of taking on and training and apprentice is simply too great.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗