Historic England Strategy 2026-2031
Over the next five years, Historic England will work to bring new life to heritage, to build a better future for every place and everyone.
Our Strategic Plan sets out how we will focus our expertise and resources to deliver the greatest public value. It has a clear conviction at its heart: that heritage can contribute powerfully to help the country meet pressing societal issues – supporting places and communities and helping create good homes, good jobs and good growth.
Our Vision
Bringing new life to heritage to build a better future for every place and everyone.
- Growth
- Place
- Sector
- Partnerships
- Inclusion
- People
- Innovation
- Fewer, better
Our priorities
Growth
England’s heritage is a powerful engine for economic growth - boosting jobs, housing, tourism and the creative industries.
Heritage-led growth is good growth. It creates value for places and the people that live in them. Heritage can unlock thousands of new homes, drive investment, and spark innovation. Heritage isn’t a barrier but a vehicle for sustainable development.
We will deliver national growth ambitions by ensuring the positive role of heritage is recognised and through embedding heritage in local plans and skills pathways.
Place
Heritage is everywhere. It’s the buildings, high streets, landscapes, parks, archaeology and neighbourhoods that shape our everyday lives.
By putting heritage at the centre of local decision making, we will help create places where people feel proud to live, work and belong.
We will empower communities to shape the future and improve the resilience of their places, supporting them to revive spaces and bring them back into use for the benefit of local people.
Sector
Most decisions about heritage are made locally – by councils, Combined Authorities, charities and by the many private owners who care for the buildings and landscapes that define our national story.
By supporting and empowering the people and organisations who steward heritage we strengthen the foundation on which place-shaping and heritage-led growth depends.
We will embed working with, and for, the sector into our core mission. Working in places across England we will provide leadership, building capacity and helping create a thriving heritage eco-system so that everyone involved in caring for heritage can play their part with confidence.
Ways of working
- Partnerships — We achieve more by working through and with others than we ever could alone. We will continue to build deeper, more strategic partnerships across public, private and voluntary sectors.
- Inclusion — Heritage is for everyone. We will work to ensure our work and our workforce reflects the full diversity of England’s communities and that everyone can access and benefit from their heritage.
- People — Our success is driven by our people. We will invest in their skills, development and wellbeing so Historic England is a place where talented people can do their best work.
- Innovation — We will embrace new thinking, technology and ways of working to solve old problems and find new opportunities.
- Fewer, Better — We will make deliberate choices about where to focus our energy and resources, concentrating effort where we can make the greatest difference.
Essential Enabling
Strongly performing backbone functions will continue to act as the organisation’s engine and are vital to effective delivery. Three essential enabling activities will underpin our priorities of Growth, Place and Sector.
Digital Services
Support our internal and external stakeholders by using AI, new business systems and data to deliver smarter, faster, more connected services and a culture of continuous digital improvement.
Income Generation
Become more financially resilient, confident and commercially capable, embedding ncome generation across all our directorates.
Estates and Historic England to Net Zero
Meet our commitment to reach net zero by 2040 through our Carbon Reduction Plan. Realise our vision for a modern, good quality, affordable and green office estate that enables and supports staff to successfully deliver their best work and is proportional to our needs.
Historic England protects and brings new life to the heritage that matters to us all, so it lives on and is loved for longer.
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