This month we are officially launching a new phase of our political campaign, aiming at local councils and devolved parliaments. This will be a parallel campaign, running in tandem with our work in Westminster, looking to influence policy at every level of government.

We will be targeting councils with high numbers of listed buildings and lobbying their councillors to ensure that listed buildings will be on the agenda at the upcoming local elections in May. We will also be reaching out to planning departments to engage with them on policy development, both on a local and national level. Our goal is to find measures that can benefit owners and councils, and to take those reforms back to Westminster with the backing of other stakeholders.

The devolved parliaments are able to legislate on planning within their own nations and are more approachable about such issues than their counterparts in Westminster. We will be looking to build ties with AMs and MSPs and to lobby for legislative action. There is much less inertia within the devolved parliaments, as well as a greater interest in passing small but effective reforms, and we believe we can make a great impact here.

For full details of our local campaign, see the March/April issue of Listed Heritage.

To show your support for our campaign, join the club.