Arts Minister John Glen has placed a temporary export bar on a drawing of the Schmadribach Waterfall, by Austrian Romantic artist Joseph Anton Koch. This provides an opportunity to keep it in the country if a buyer can match the asking price of £68,750. Dating …

New Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund will unlock over £1 billion for full fibre broadband across the country. The Government’s £400 million Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF) will unlock over £1 billion for full fibre broadband, and kick-start better broadband connections across the country. Ministers seek …

New garden cities, towns and villages have been proposed as one way to meet the housing shortfall. A new garden city is under development at Ebbsfleet and the Government has offered support for a number of further garden town and village sites across the country. …

Kevin Brennan, Shadow Minister for Arts and Heritage, posed a written question asking the Secretary of State for DCMS, what recent discussions she has had with heritage sector representatives on establishing a budget for collaborative research projects on conservation issues between the UK and other …

The Housing & Finance Institute (HFI), which was established by the Government, has published, Repair, Protect, Build: What next for UK Housing After The Tragedy at Grenfell Tower. The report recommends: Immediate action is taken for a pause, a moratorium, on any new high-rise blocks …

Historic England, working with Civic Voice (CV) and the IHBC [Alliance members], has released results of two parallel surveys of IHBC and CV members’ perceptions of conservation areas in their 50th anniversary year. Key points include: Almost all respondents from both groups felt that conservation …

The Taylor review of modern working practices has made a number of recommendations which may affect the heritage sector. Perhaps the most important is the recommendation on interns. Any reforms the Government makes must not jeopardise volunteering which is key to supporting the heritage sector. …

T­­­he English Lake District, a cultural and ancient landscape in North West of England that inspired Romantic poets and conservationists including William Wordsworth, John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter, has been inscribed onto UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The bid was submitted by the Department for Digital, …

The Department will continue to be referred to as DCMS in all communications, but it is now the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The move is intended to reflect the way the Department’s remit has evolved. DCMS states that the traditional core of …

The main workshop programme has ended but other training still remains. One-to-one-support sessions: Free one-hour sessions with one of our expert trainers. Find out more and book. Social Investment support sessions: Free one-hour sessions with our Social Investment partners. Find out more or complete this …

HRBA, a group within the Heritage Alliance, is running its 7th training day on ‘Managing Major Building Projects in Places of Worship’, in partnership with Purcell UK. It is taking place at the Wesley Memorial Church in the centre of Oxford. The day covers the …

Last week the Heritage Alliance met the Office of Tax Simplification as part of their call for evidence on VAT. We stressed the public benefit and opportunity to simplify the VAT charged on repair and maintenance of buildings to 5% across the board. We highlighted …