REVIEW AND ANALYSIS 15 WELCOME! MIKE BROWN, IHBC PRESIDENT THE IHBC Yearbook is now in its 24th wonderful year. Within its pages you will find a comprehensive guide to the world of heritage conservation. It includes a directory of members and articles on topical conservation issues including ‘Place and Building Care’ – our theme for the Reading Annual School. You will also find contact details for HESPR members, key sector organisations and specialist suppliers offering valuable conservation products, services and advice. Members of the IHBC will be fully versed by now in our efforts to petition for a Royal Charter and the resolution to the April 2024 AGM authorising the formal process was passed overwhelmingly. Our Chair, David McDonald, in his Yearbook column explores the advantages to our members of being granted a charter. For readers yet to join the IHBC, this would be a timely moment to get your membership application in! For the IHBC to succeed in this endeavour we must make our strongest case to the Privy Council Office (the PCO advises the monarch on the suitability of petitioners) and, importantly, we must also carry the wider sector with us. The PCO, in considering our proposal, will take soundings across UK governments, Ieading heritage sector societies and professional associations, seeking their views, letters of support and any objections. We are confident of our case, of course, but are mindful of the perceptions of others. Consequently, we have weighed how our case might impact or benefit those organisations and what its potential is to enhance and strengthen the whole sector. Following preliminary discussions, the response of the PCO has been very encouraging. The memorandum (or letter of intent) required by the PCO should provide evidence of the extent to which the IHBC is pre-eminent in its field, its high professional and ethical standards, our sound governance arrangements and financial robustness. The most critical test for the PCO, however, is ‘would the granting of a charter to the petitioner be in the public interest?’ So, the issue is not so much would the charter be of benefit to the petitioner and its members, but rather ‘would it be in the wider interests of society?’ While all those practicing in the heritage sector would be confident that their work is in the public interest, posing the question provides an opportunity for us to provide a more sharply focused definition of our role in society. Britain’s heritage is the topophilic ‘cherished familiar landscape’ that provides the stage upon which all of us can successfully conduct our daily lives in well-being and health, and within an enriching cultural context. Its very time-depth provides continuity and stability in a world of increasingly dizzying change, while the evidence of its managed evolution gives us confidence that the future need not be feared. So, Britain’s heritage is much more than a tourism draw, important though that is. Its conservation and protection is, therefore, of the utmost significance to the UK, both at home and abroad. The IHBC and its members are central to that endeavor. Chartered status for the IHBC will strengthen the standing and professional reputation of not just our members, but all those organisations and individuals working in heritage, place-making and the building conservation sector. Chartered status will underscore professional and ethical standards and thereby enhance practitioner and client confidence and trust. This will help strengthen the recognition by government, employers and the wider public of the value of heritage and its practitioners to society. In time, this has the potential to encourage a more rewarding career path and better remuneration. It will deepen public understanding of the benefits of holistic, interdisciplinary conservation services, and provide a chartered UK body as a focus for training, learned discourse and professional standards across the built heritage sector. As a progressive conservation body committed to heritage as a vehicle for growth and an exemplar for a greener future, a chartered IHBC will be better placed to change old perceptions about heritage as a constraint on progress. Once the PCO has collated and considered the responses from governments and our sector colleagues, it will then respond to the IHBC and advise of any measures it considers necessary prior to the submission of a formal petition for charter. If you need further information about the charter, a more detailed explanation of the process or simply seek answers to any questions, just get in touch. Please send statements of support or any questions to admin@ ihbc.org.uk. Mike Brown is IHBC President (president@ihbc.org.uk) and Director of Conservation & Design Ltd
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