Historic England

We look after the historic environment, providing expert advice, helping people protect and care for it, and helping the public to understand and enjoy it.

Our purpose is to:

• Secure the preservation of ancient monuments and historic buildings
• Promote the preservation and enhancement of the character and appearance of conservation areas
• Promote the public’s enjoyment of, and advance their knowledge of, ancient monuments and historic buildings

What we do:

• Advise government on which parts of our heritage are nationally important, and promote the importance of heritage in making places distinctive and valued.
• Advise local authorities on managing changes to the most important parts of our heritage.
• Provide grants to reduce the amount of heritage at risk.
• Pass on our expertise through training and guidance for people working in heritage, practical conservation advice and by providing access to our resources.
• Support the English Heritage Trust (a charity) in its care of over 400 historic properties owned by the nation and open to the public.

Listing and Scheduling

Listing, scheduling, registering and protecting are all forms of designation, for protecting buildings, monuments, parks and gardens, battlefields and wreck sites respectively. Listed buildings and scheduled monuments enjoy a high level of protection which is adminsitered and overseen by Historic England.

The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is the only official and up-to-date database of all listed and designated heritage sites.

Action Plan

Historic England's Action Plan for 2015-2018 sets out how we will put our Corporate Plan into practice. It also forms our contribution to Heritage 2020, the historic environment sector's joint priorities for heritage.

English Heritage

We work closely with our sister organisation English Heritage.