This year’s Heritage Counts, the annual survey of England’s historic environment, focuses on the role individuals, private businesses, local groups and national heritage organisations play in protecting and promoting the historic environment and the potential of heritage as a way of getting people involved in their communities.

Heritage Counts draws on new research from The Heritage Alliance and Civic Voice to demonstrate the scale and breadth of the activities that heritage and community organisations and individual historic places are involved in. Examples of projects the historic environment are involved in include HHA Member, Doddington Hall’s work to provide volunteer experiences, in particular the Walled Kitchen Gardens which brought land back into use and resulted in the opening of a farm shop, the only one within 20 miles of Lincoln.

Each year Heritage Counts analyses a series of indicator. Key finding this year include:
• A fall in the number of Building at Risk entries;
• The continuing decrease in the numbers of local authority historic environment staff and trainees and apprentices in heritage related professions
• Increases in the number of older people visiting heritage sites
• A ruse in membership figures for heritage organisations.

Heritage Counts recognises that the vast majority of investment in the historic environment comes from private sector businesses and individuals and quotes HHA statistics indicating that £139m is spent by HHA members to maintain the historic assets in their care.

Heritage Counts is produced by English Heritage on behalf of the Historic Environment Forum.   http://hc.english-heritage.org.uk/