Well, we always knew we are worth our weight in gold..
This post is Shared from ‘Museums and Heritage advisor with additions from us.
First-of-its-kind research from Historic England says the £29 billion economic benefit of heritage can be measured similarly to green spaces
The wellbeing created by day-to-day encounters with local heritage is worth £29 billion annually nationwide, according to a new Historic England report.
Its research suggests that on average Its research suggests that on average, a person’s life satisfaction improves to the value of £515 a year, just by living near local heritage sites such as a small civic museum or village church.
Pandemic places for people
Even before the pandemic, we knew that the Gardens brought beauty, solace, peace and joy to our visitors, users, staff and volunteers. During the pandemic we were really proud to be able to stay open, when permitted, to offer a safe haven for people to get fresh air, stretch their legs and contemplate. We lost people during that time too, but meeting visitors, opening up for one – or a hundred – people, keeping our theatre and music programmes going was a pleasure and good for our own wellbeing too.
At that time, public funds from central government, the Heritage Lottery and Defra were made available for people like us wanting to share our cultural, historic and horticultural pleasures with our neighbours. It’s always controversial and problematic to put a ‘price’ on human health and wellbeing, but this piece of research is a really welcome. People often say something is price-less and that worth is beyond measure, this research helpfully quantifies the ‘value’ of places like this for those of us who have to measure things in pounds and pence too.
The ‘Heritage Capital and Wellbeing’ report suggests that the very presence of nearby historic places benefits residents’ quality of life, even if people do not participate in heritage activities.
The billions in annual economic gain has been calculated using guidance from the Treasury on measuring and quantifying in economic terms the effect of policies on people’s lives. Grade II listed buildings, which represent most of England’s historic places, are the main drivers of life satisfaction increase, the report suggests, adding that proximity to lots of local heritage is a higher drive of life satisfaction than rare, exceptional historic places.
Your local bit of nationally significant heritage
The Gardens, Parkland, Church, Hall and CoachHouse are all part of a wider Conservation Area (the biggest in the borough) and contain, in various ownerships Grade1, Grade2* and Grade2 buildings, parks and gardens as well as being designated a Local Nature Reserve. That really puts the whole area well into the top 10% of protected places in the country.
Historic England says the report is the first of its kind to quantify the wellbeing value of heritage, and has followed similar approaches within environmental economics, which have evidenced wellbeing gains proximity to urban green spaces.
Did you know there are almost 80,000 people living within a 20 minute walk of the Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens and Parkland. We’re not sure all of them are feeling that heritage premium wellbeing ‘add on’ but we certainly welcome more than 14,000 people every year.. and theres room for lots more to come and experience the 40acres of green, wildlife, cultural and heritage which we try to look after…
The Gardens and Parkland costs our small independent charitable trust about £1,000 a day just to keep going. We get no regular funding support from anywhere, the church and the hall have to make their own way too….
Wouldnt it be nice if, as we are potentially adding about £7million to the cultural and wellbeing capital hereabouts if we were to get a little more financial support to keep us going … Now that would certainly be satisfying.
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The full report can be found here
The research is funded by the Culture Heritage Capital programme and is supported by DCMS and HM Treasury.
Lord Neil Mendoza, Chairman of Historic England, said: “We all value the role that green spaces play in ensuring wellbeing; this new ground-breaking research shows us that the everyday local heritage found in towns and cities across England plays a comparable and valuable role.
Adala Leeson, Head of Social and Economic research at Historic England, said the research “provides compelling economic evidence that demonstrates the value of heritage, and reinforces the importance of the advocacy and conservation efforts made by volunteers, community groups and the heritage sector to protect historic places.”
