Listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. The classification schemes differ between England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The term has also been used in the Republic of Ireland, where buildings are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000, although the statutory term in Ireland is "protected structure".
A listed building may not be demolished, extended, or altered without permission from the local planning authority, which typically consults the relevant central government agency. In England and Wales, a national amenity society must be notified of any work to be done on a listed building which involves any element of demolition.
Exemption from secular listed building control is provided for some buildings in current use for worship, but only in cases where the relevant religious organisation operates its own equivalent permissions procedure. Owners of listed buildings are, in some circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them and can face criminal prosecution if they fail to do so or if they perform unauthorised alterations. When alterations are permitted, or when listed buildings are repaired or maintained, the owners are often required to use specific materials or techniques.
Although most sites appearing on the lists are buildings, other structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, milestones and mileposts, and the Abbey Road zebra crossing made famous by the Beatles, are also listed. Ancient, military, and uninhabited structures, such as Stonehenge, are sometimes instead classified as scheduled monuments and are protected by separate legislation. Cultural landscapes such as parks and gardens are currently "listed" on a non-statutory basis.
Background
Although a limited number of 'ancient monuments' were given protection under the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882, there was reluctance to restrict the owners of occupied buildings in their actions related to their property. The extensive damage to buildings caused by German bombing during World War II prompted efforts to list and protect buildings that were deemed to be of particular architectural merit. Three hundred members of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings were dispatched to prepare the list under the supervision of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, with funding from the Treasury. The listings were used as a means to determine whether a particular building should be rebuilt if it was damaged by bombing, with varying degrees of success. In Scotland, the process slightly predated the war with the Marquess of Bute commissioning the architect Ian Lindsay in September 1936 to survey 103 towns and villages based on an Amsterdam model using three categories.The basis of the current more comprehensive listing process was developed from the wartime system. It was enacted by a provision in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 covering England and Wales, and the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 covering Scotland. Listing was first introduced into Northern Ireland under the Planning Order 1972. The listing process has since developed slightly differently in each part of the UK.
Heritage protection
The process of protecting the built historic environment is called 'designation'. Several different terms are used because the processes use separate legislation: buildings are 'listed'; ancient monuments are 'scheduled', wrecks are 'protected', and battlefields, gardens and parks are 'registered'. A heritage asset is a part of the historic environment that is valued because of its historic, archaeological, architectural or artistic interest.Only some of these are judged to be important enough to have extra legal protection through designation. Buildings that are not formally listed but still judged as being of heritage interest can still be regarded as a material consideration in the planning process.
As a very rough guide, listed buildings are structures considered of special architectural and historical importance. Ancient monuments are of 'national importance' containing evidential values, and can on many occasions also relate to below ground or unoccupied sites and buildings.
Eligibility
Almost anything can be listed. Buildings and structures of special historic interest come in a wide variety of forms and types, ranging from telephone boxes and road signs, to castles. Historic England has created twenty broad categories of structures, and published selection guides for each one to aid with assessing buildings and structures. These include historical overviews and describe the special considerations for listing each category. However, in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Dill v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and another that buildings in the scheme must meet certain criteria – "a three-fold test which involved considering size, permanence and degree of physical attachment" – referred to as the Skerritts test in reference to a previous legal case in England. Both Historic Environment Scotland and Cadw produce guidance for owners.Listing and delisting procedure
In England, to have a building considered for listing or delisting, the process is to apply to the secretary of state; this can be done by submitting an application form online to Historic England. The applicant does not need to be the owner of the building to apply for it to be listed. Full information including application form guidance notes are on the Historic England website. Historic England assesses buildings put forward for listing or delisting and provides advice to the Secretary of State on the architectural and historic interest. The Secretary of State, who may seek additional advice from others, then decides whether to list or delist the building.England and Wales
Legislation
England
In England, the authority for listing is granted to the Secretary of State by the Planning Act 1990. Listed buildings in danger of decay are listed on the Historic England 'Heritage at Risk' Register.In 1980, there was public outcry at the sudden destruction of the art deco Firestone Tyre Factory. It was demolished over the August bank holiday weekend by its owners Trafalgar House, who had been told that it was likely to be 'spot-listed' a few days later. In response, the government undertook to review arrangements for listing buildings in order to protect worthy ones from such demolition. After the Firestone demolition, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, also initiated a complete re-survey of buildings to ensure that everything that merited preservation was on the lists.
In England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport works with Historic England, and other government departments, e.g. Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to deliver the government policy on the protection to historic buildings and other heritage assets. The decision about whether or not to list a building is made by the Secretary of State, although the process is administered in England by Historic England.
Wales
The listed building system in Wales formerly also operated under the Planning Act 1990, as in England, until this was replaced in 2024 with Wales-specific heritage legislation.In Wales, the authority for listing is granted to the Welsh Ministers by section 76 of the Historic Environment Act 2023, although the listing system is in practice administered by Cadw.
English heritage protection reform
There have been several attempts to simplify the heritage planning process for listed buildings in England. As of 2021, few changes had been implemented.File:2004-10-09_Midland_Bank.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|100 King Street, Manchester, built in 1935 and formerly the Midland Bank, was listed Grade II* in 1974.
The review process was started in February 2000 by Alan Howarth, then minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The outcome was the paper "Power of Place" in December 2000, followed by the subsequent policy document, "The Historic Environment: A Force for Our Future", published by the DCMS and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in December 2001. The launch of the Government's Heritage Protection Reform report in July 2003 by the DCMS, entitled "Protecting our historic environment: Making the system work better", asked questions about how the current designation systems could be improved. The HPR decision report "Review of Heritage Protection: The Way Forward", a green paper published in June 2004 by the DCMS, committed the UK government and English Heritage to a process of reform, including a review of the criteria used for listing buildings.
A Review of Heritage Policy in 2006 was criticised, and the Government began a process of consultation on changes to Planning Policy Guidance 15, relating to the principles of selection for listing buildings in England.
The government's White Paper "Heritage Protection for the 21st Century", published on 8 March 2007, offered a commitment to sharing the understanding of the historic environment and more openness in the process of designation.
In 2008, a draft Heritage Protection Bill was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny before its passage through UK Parliament. The legislation was abandoned despite strong cross-party support, to make room in the parliamentary legislative programme for measures to deal with the credit crunch, though it may be revived in future. The proposal was that the existing registers of buildings, parks and gardens, archaeology and battlefields, maritime wrecks, and World Heritage Sites be merged into a single online register that will "explain what is special and why". English Heritage would become directly responsible for identifying historic assets in England and there would be wider consultation with the public and asset owners, and new rights of appeal. There would have been streamlined systems for granting consent for work on historic assets.
After several years of consultation with heritage groups, charities, local planning authorities, and English Heritage, in March 2010, the DCLG published Planning Policy Statement 5, "Planning for the Historic Environment". This replaced PPG15 and set out the government's national policies on the conservation of the historic environment in England. PPS5 was supported by a Practice Guide, endorsed by the DCLG, the DCMS, and English Heritage, which explained how to apply the policies stated in PPS5.
In December 2010, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that in England all PPSs and Planning Policy Guidance Notes would be replaced by a single document, the National Planning Policy Framework. A consultation draft of this was published on 25 July 2011 and the final version on 27 March 2012. This became a material consideration in planning matters on publication. It has since been revised in 2018, 2019 and 2021.