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About HTF

The Historic Towns Forum (HTF), formerly the English Historic Towns Forum (EHTF), has been supporting professionals working in the historic built environment since 1987 and welcomes new members - join here.

The Forum's events and publications focus on perennial and topical issues. Together they offer a strong platform from which to lobby policy makers on behalf of historic towns and cities more details.

English Tourism Week 2012

16 December 2011
With so many important events taking place in England in 2012 and to coincide with English Tourism Week, HTF are planning a tourism conference at Blenheim Palace on 16 March 2012. This will be supported by VisitEngland. Find out how to make the most of opportunities for tourists and the tourism industry in your town. View conference details and register. If you wish to sponsor all or part of the event please contact us.

HTF 2012 events

16 December 2011

Town Halls to benefit from business rates growth

4 January 2012
Government will introduce major reforms enabling councils to keep a share of business rates they collect rather than paying them back to Whitehall. Ministers are committed to letting councils benefit from business rates growth in their areas and borrow against future rate income. Read more

Saving energy: A guide for owners of historic homes

16 December 2011
An HTF project in conjunction with The Prince's Regeneration Trust and 4th year UWE architecture and planning student Heidi Tremlett, has produced a useful guidance leaflet to show how historic home owners can reduce CO2 emissions in their homes.
Download the leaflet.

Autumn statement

16 December 2011
The Chancellor covered a number of issues that affect the heritage sector in his Autumn Statement. Particularly of interest to HTF Members will be the areas of planning reform, vocational training and tourism. More detail can be found in the articles here.

The Localism Act and community assets

16 Decmember 2011
An outcome of the Localism Act requires local authorities to maintain lists of assets for community value. When an asset is put up for sale a moratorium of six months must be allowed on the sale, allowing local groups time to put together a bid to take it over for community benefit. The Act does not give community organisations first refusal when community assets come up for sale, as originally proposed by community groups, but groups will have opportunities to take on the planning system or to take over failing services and to take ownership of significant historic buildings.
Supporting community asset transfers toolkits
In April the HTF will be holding a seminar to give help in how to implement Asset Transfer Register your interest
The debate continues: Join the discussion with the Historic Towns Forum Linkedin group

National Planning Policy Framework update

16 December 2011
In total there were 13,700 responses to the NPPF consultation. Local authorities are very concerned about the proposed changes to national planning policy. Main issues include the definition of sustainable development, the lack of emphasis on reusing brownfield land and the need for appropriate transitional arrangements to ensure a smooth shift to any new system. Read more
HTF response to initial consultation 22 Feb
HTF press release 13 Sept
Notes and presentations from NPPF workshop 30 Sept
HTF NPPF consultation response 10 Oct
Bath Preservation Trust response
View 130 more responses 13 Oct

Mary Portas' High Street Review

16 December 2011
Mary Portas unveiled her high street review this week giving 28 recommendations to improve UK high streets and town centres. She has received nearly 2,000 comments on her website from members of the public and high street retailers. Findings from two HTF/EH workshops attended by a wide range of property professionals and partnership organisations also fed into the report. Government will respond the to report early next year. For inclusion in the ATCM offical position read The Portas Review and send your comments to Ojay.McDonald@atcm.org. See ATCM's first response here.

Register your interest in attending HTF's retail conference on 23 March.

Implementing the Penfold Review

16 December 2011
On 29 November the Government published its programme for implementation of the Penfold Review. Of particular interest in relation to heritage protection and listed buildings is the measure to enable the extent of a building's listing to be defined in its list entry. This removes the need to apply for consent for works to other parts of that building. Listed building owners and local authorities will be able to enter into Statutory Management Agreements to enable works specified in that agreement to be undertaken without the need for separate consent applications. Read more.
Read the EH response.

HTF takes on planning law intern and seeks volunteers

17 November 2011
In 2012 HTF will be joined by Sonal Barot who will be investigating the impacts of planning law on historic towns. She has recently qualified at the Bar and has numerous awards and prizes for her legal work. We feel very fortunate to have Sonal with us while she is waiting to take up her pupillage at Landmark Chambers next October. If you would like to volunteer for the HTF, contact us. In particular we would like to speak to people with planning, policy, or fundraising experience but will happily consider all interest.

Merging Conservation Area Consent into Planning Permission

16 December 2011
There have been a few queries from different quarters on the proposal relating to the likely demise of Conservation Area Consent. The implications of this have been under consideration for some time as they formed part of early phases of heritage protection reform. Read more

Historic find in Co Clare

16 December 2011
Archaeologists restoring a building in Ennis, Co Clare, believe they have discovered Ireland's earliest surviving example of a timber framed house. Read more.

LEPs a year on show slow progress

28 October 2011
It is a year since the first 24 LEPs were announced with the purpose to bring the public sector and business together to take charge of the local economy – driving growth, creating jobs and providing strategic leadership. A recent report shows that some have made very little progress over the last year. The evidence shows that LEPs have made varied progress in setting up boards and producing strategies which suggests that the impact of the LEPs will be equally inconsistent.
Read the report

Historic Environment: Local Authority Capacity (HELAC)

2 November 2011
A sector-wide initiative has been designed to explore ways of supporting local authorities re-evaluate their historic environment services in line with budget reductions.

Pilot studies from Cheltenham, Chichester, Essex, Northumberland and the Cotswold area will shortly be published by HELAC, showing the different approaches taken by areas in providing historic environment services. Although councils are not expected to mirror the decisions taken, given that conditions are unique to each area, they will find it helpful to examine the processes others have gone through.

Listed industrial buildings are more at risk than almost any other kind of heritage

2 November 2011
Almost 11% of grade I and II* industrial buildings are at risk. This was just one of the findings in the recently published Heritage at Risk 2011. In a public poll published by English Heritage at the same time it was found 86% agreed that it is important we value and appreciate industrial heritage. George Ferguson, HTF Honorary Member commented, "Old industrial buildings can present a great opportunity for inspiring and sustainable conversions to a variety of uses." Read more.

Review: Ancoats: cradle of industrialisation

New Director for SPAB

16 December 2011
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has appointed Matthew Slocombe to take over as Director when Philip Venning retires next summer. SPAB, Britain's oldest heritage organisation, much like the HTF, supports local authorities and communities working to manage the historic built environment.

BBC Original Features series seeks case studies

2 November 2011
Do you know of anyone or any property that could take part in the next 'Original Features' TV series? This will be hosted by Nick Knowles. Whatever the historical period they would be interested in hearing from you. Contact originalfeatures@bbc.co.uk or call on 0117 974 6875 or 0117 974 7981

Economic Vision in Historic Towns – planning and regeneration

17 November 2011
The ongoing difficulties facing town and city centres in terms of economic survival have been highlighted by engagement with Local Enterprise Partnerships, the BIS High Street Review, the forthcoming Localism Bill, the controversy around the National Planning Policy Framework as well as tourism and heritage cuts. HTF's recent conference in York examined the issues in the context of historic towns and cities..View the storified tweets, download the presentations, find out how York has prepared for localism

Getting the most from Social Media

24 October 2011
Used correctly, social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be an extremely effective marketing tool. On 29 September HTF held a seminar on using social media to improve knowledge sharing; delegates learnt how to make social media work for their organisations, while expert advice was given to help them come to grips with the complexity of Intellectual Property law.
View the speakers' presentations and useful links to help you manage your social media strategy.

Upcoming consultations

Download HTF publications for FREE!

HTF Members can now login for FREE DOWNLOADS of all HTF publications in pdf format, receive a 25% discount on hard copies and look out for discounts on other recommended publications including a 10% discount on a subscription to the twice-yearly journal The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice

Responses to past consultations