CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 11 a constraint. Land-use policies emphasise reuse and adaptation of historic buildings, aligning heritage with sustainability and economic vitality. This is a notable cultural shift: heritage is positioned as part of the solution to growth challenges, not an obstacle. Climate policy is another area where heritage has been repositioned. The new NPPF aligns historic-building retrofit with national decarbonisation goals, encouraging sensitive, energy-efficiency upgrades and emphasising the carbon benefits of reusing existing buildings. Heritage considerations are now embedded in clean energy and water infrastructure planning, ensuring that climate adaptation does not come at the expense of significance. Taken together, these changes create a planning environment where heritage is more structured, more evidence-driven and more integrated with national priorities. The new NPPF tightens the harm framework, clarifying expectations for town-centre regeneration and embedding heritage within a broader rules-based system. For heritage practitioners and decision-makers, the message is clear: heritage is now a core part of how England plans for growth, design quality and climate resilience. A package of core procedural regulations to start the new local plan-making system, as provided for by the Levellingup and Regeneration Act 2023, came into force on 25 March (see the MCHLG Message from Chief Planner, dated 5 March). These regulations relate to plan making, permitted development, development corporations and secretary of state referrals. The Devolution Bill is progressing and will have implications for heritage. We have also been presented with two new Historic England Advice Notes (HEAN). This includes HEAN 7, Local Heritage Listing: identifying and conserving local heritage (May 2026), which aims to provide a comprehensive guide to local heritage lists, outlining the benefits and the steps involved in creating or revising a list. HEAN 15, Delivering Clean Power: commercial renewable energy development and the historic environment (June 2026) describes the potential impacts on the historic environment of commercial renewable energy proposals (both terrestrial and marine). This second edition, updated to reflect recent policy changes, includes an expanded section on onshore wind and an updated section on solar farms. England’s new heritage policy includes the Historic England Strategic Plan 2026–2031 and the £1.5 billion national heritage investment programme. Together these will be setting a growth-, place- and sector-focused agenda for heritage. Also of relevance to heritage is the government’s introduction of two prototype artificial intelligence tools, designed to accelerate planning decisions and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes. This signals a major shift in how England’s planning system operates and how heritage law is applied. Although the statutory duties protecting heritage assets, such as the obligations under sections 66(1) and 72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, remain unchanged, AI will reshape the evidential environment in which those duties are discharged. By digitising decades of historic planning records, conservation area boundaries, Article 4 directions and other legacy documents, AI makes heritage constraints more visible and accessible, enabling officers to identify significance and potential harm more consistently. This increased efficiency comes with new pressures: faster validation and determination timelines may encourage overreliance on AI-generated summaries, which risk obscuring material heritage considerations and exposing decisions to legal challenge. At the same time, AI-assisted analysis can strengthen the evidential basis for assessing harm, supporting clearer judgements about setting, cumulative change and precedent. Heritage consultants will benefit from earlier access to site-specific information, allowing more proactive risk identification and more robust heritage impact assessments. Yet local authorities must also navigate new governance responsibilities, ensuring transparency in how AI outputs are used, maintaining accuracy in digitised constraints, and safeguarding compliance with equality duties. AI does not rewrite heritage law; instead, it transforms the conditions under which heritage protection is practised, offering opportunities for more consistent and informed decision-making while introducing fresh risks that demand careful oversight. See Historic England’s Planning Bulletins for monthly heritage updates. Wales The Planning (Wales) Bill and Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Bill were approved by the Senedd on 10 March. They bring together years of existing legislation and amendments into a single bilingual statute, and clarify which laws relate to England only. There is a helpful table to understand these changes and a list of definitions of key terms at section 408 of the Act. Technical Advice Note 24 The Historic Environment was updated in March 2026, aligning heritage practice with the new legislative framework. It provides updated guidance on heritage impact assessments, and strengthened climate-change and sustainability framing. There are also revisions to sections on world heritage sites, archaeological remains, listed buildings, conservation areas, and historic parks and gardens. Together, the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, the Planning (Wales) Act 2026 and TAN 24 (2026) create the new landscape of Welsh heritage law.
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