HERITAGE COUNTS REPORT

Motion Text

That this House welcomes the publication of the English Heritage report Heritage Counts 2007, the sixth annual survey of England's heritage; congratulates English Heritage for its work in maintaining and promoting the United Kingdom's historic environment; notes that Great Britain's heritage assets continue to be recognised with an increase in the number of both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, listed buildings and landscapes in designated protection schemes; welcomes the reduction in Grade I and II* buildings under threat; acknowledges the huge contribution heritage makes to tourism in the United Kingdom with 70 per cent. of adults and 2.5 million school children visiting the historic environment last year; and deplores the Government's neglect of Britain's heritage as illustrated by the raid on the Heritage Lottery Fund's allocation to support ministerial projects, thus reducing heritage fund expenditure from £327 million in 1997-98 to £200 million in 2006-07.