Interesting.  

At a very broad level it can be said that between £40 and £50 million (back of envelope calculation undertaken for a presentation earlier this year) has been invested in the enhancement of SMRs/HERs between 1990 and 2010 – mostly from EH (EUS, UAD, HLC, NMP Coastal surveys etc) but also HLF, the EU and of course Local Authorities.  As it can pretty confidently be said that the current planning and archaeology system would not exist in its current form without that investment, the value of this investment in the long term is very high indeed (between 10-1 and 100-1). 

The overall point is that it is probably not necessary to be too detailed/specific as the ratios (as with Ben’s example from the natural environment in Scotland) are clearly very high.   Producing a range of such metrics (e.g. past investment, current running costs, numbers of records, number of archaeological projects and their value  [given that every project will have consulted a HER]) could make a strong case?

Stewart Bryant

This sounds like an exercise that could very usefully be fed into the development of a ‘cultural capital’ model by DCMS (with HE and others involved), which is intended to sit alongside the existing models of ‘natural capital’ accounting. 

Might be worth contacting Hannah Fluck at Historic England?

Dear All,

I have been asked if there is any way in which the value of the HER could be calculated/expressed in economic terms, return of investment, benefit to the local economy, etc. This is not a cost to reproduce were the HER to be wiped and had to be rebuilt from scratch, but the value the HER provides as an existing asset.

Some work has been done on this in relation biological recording in Scotland which states: “For every £1 invested, between £10 and £23.50 of economic value is underpinned (based on the most conservative estimate)”.

The report is here: https://nbn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SBIF-Review-Final-Report-and-Recommendations.pdf

Is anybody aware of any similar work for HERs? I am aware of assessments of the Social Return of Investment but that, and other similar thinking, is looking at the historic environment as a whole, not the HER specifically. I have also been asked if there is some nominal value that could be assigned to each record to give an estimate of the asset value, though this assumes that larger HERs are more valuable than smaller ones…

Any thoughts?

All the best,

Ben

Dr Ben Croxford MCIfA

Historic Environment Record Officer

Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service

2^nd Floor Magdalen House

Trinity Road

Bootle

L20 3NJ

Tel: 0151 934 4958

www.meas.org.uk

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