Safeguarding Northern Ireland's Listed Buildings

Mr Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General, today issued his report to the Assembly on ‘Safeguarding Northern Ireland’s Listed Buildings’.

Mr Donnelly said: “The Environment Agency plays a crucial role in protecting Northern Ireland’s rich built heritage. It undertakes survey work to identify structures that merit statutory protection and it pays grant to owners to repair and restore them.

The Agency has taken too long to undertake its survey work. Originally intended to be completed in 2008, this exercise is now not likely to be finalised until 2020.

The Agency has paid £12.6 million in grants to listed building owners in the 5 year period to 2009/10. These have not been allocated on a targeted basis and there is no mechanism to direct grant to the most urgent or important cases to help NIEA achieve its target of removing 200 structures from the Built Heritage at Risk Register by 2016.”

Main Findings

Survey of historic buildings

Decisions to list buildings are based on survey work and the data gathered through this process provide wider benefits for the protection and understanding of the historic environment. The survey arrangements in place up to 2007 represented a ‘rolls royce’ approach, with a large number of buildings being selected for survey in a given area. This contributed to the survey falling significantly behind schedule.
In the period up to 2007, NIEA did not determine, in advance, the work that contractors were required to complete, nor what it was expected to cost. This meant that the volume and cost of outputs were, in effect, determined by the contractors rather than being managed by NIEA.

Around 3,700 (approximately 60 per cent) of the buildings surveyed and processed up to 2010, at a cost of approximately £1.1 million, were not considered suitable for listing. It is to be expected that some surveyed structures would fail to meet the listed standard, but an on-going non-listed rate of this magnitude is wasteful of scarce resources and NIEA did not act quickly enough to reduce it.

The more targeted identification of buildings for survey under a new contract begun in 2010 and a revised system within NIEA have resulted in an improved outcome, with records submitted by contractors being processed within the agreed timetable.

Historic Buildings Grant Scheme

In order to encourage building conservation activities, NIEA offers repair grant aid to owners of listed buildings. It is accepted best practice for grant schemes to incorporate appropriate performance measures to ensure that the scheme achieves its objectives and delivers value for money. The only specific measure of performance for the historic buildings grant scheme has been the degree to which the planned level of spend for each financial year has been incurred in bringing individual buildings up to a required standard.

The pattern of grant aid over the last five years shows that 54 per cent of the total £12.6m spend has been on the more important and rare buildings in the higher listed categories. A capping mechanism introduced in 2009-10 restricted the amount payable in respect of individual buildings, including one in Category A. In December 2010, the cap was further reduced to £50,000.

A targeting mechanism to prioritise grant approvals was drawn up in 2009 but not used because demand for grant aid did not exceed budget.

The NI Sustainable Development Strategy contains a target to remove 200 structures from the Built Heritage at Risk Register by 2016. However, NIEA does not have a prioritised list of buildings that it wishes to see removed from the Register and there is currently no mechanism to direct grant to the most urgent or important cases

Enforcement of listed buildings regulations

Enforcement of regulations to protect listed buildings is the responsibility of Planning Service, with expert support from NIEA. However, the process has been hindered by a delay in agreeing procedures for collaborative working between NIEA and Planning Service and deficiencies in the management information systems in both Agencies.

Quality of management information relating to listed buildings

NIEA’s system for recording details of the listed building stock cannot produce summary information, such as a report providing the total number of listed buildings broken down by category and by year and this must be done manually at year end.

The limited functionality of the online Built Heritage at Risk register undermines its potential usefulness as a basis for ranking listed structures in order of importance or vulnerability, or for targeting action to rescue them
Departments have not complied with a UK-wide protocol setting out requirements for reporting on the condition and maintenance of listed buildings that they own.