Heritage Partnership Agreements — Consultation on Draft Regulations and Guidance
The Welsh Government is seeking your views on draft regulations and guidance for heritage partnership agreements in Wales.
The Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016 amended existing historic environment legislation to introduce heritage partnership agreements in Wales. These agreements are voluntary arrangements for the long-term management of scheduled monuments and listed buildings negotiated between owners, consenting authorities and other interested parties.
Crucially, a heritage partnership agreement can incorporate listed building and/or scheduled monument consents for an agreed programme of works to be carried out during the lifetime of the agreement, which may last for as long as 10 to 15 years.
A heritage partnership agreement provides the basis for a comprehensive and consistent approach to the management of designated historic assets, whether located together on a single estate or scattered across one or more local authority areas.
The draft guidance is intended to help owners and consenting authorities understand the potential benefits of heritage partnership agreements and to support them in developing agreements.
The draft regulations set out the consultation and publicity that must precede the establishment or variation of a heritage partnership agreement and the mechanism for the termination of an agreement by order of a local planning authority or the Welsh Ministers.
The twelve-week public consultation, which also seeks input on the regulatory and integrated impact assessments for the regulations, will close on 12 April 2021. The consultation documents and full instructions on how to reply are available on the Welsh Government website.
Following the completion of the consultation and the analysis of the responses, we hope that it will be possible to enact the final regulations early in the new Senedd term and bring heritage partnership agreements fully into force in Wales soon after.
