Heritage Impact Assessments
If you’re submitting a planning application that directly affects heritage assets or their settings, you’ll need to submit a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA).
Listed buildings and conservation areas
You will always need to submit an HIA for planning applications for:
- listed buildings
- demolishing buildings within a conservation area
Developments affecting heritage assets
It’s also required for any new development affecting designated heritage assets including:
You should also submit an HIA if your planning application directly affects a non-designated heritage asset or its setting, including local listings, unregistered parks and gardens and potential areas of archaeological interest.
Contact us before you submit an application for free advice:
Email: conservation@newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01636 560 000
Assessing the significance of the heritage asset
Understanding the significance of the heritage asset is the crucial first step and should come before designing a proposal. The HIA needs to be appropriate and proportionate to the:
- significance of the asset
- the impact on that significance
- scope of your proposal
Providing detailed information from the outset can speed up the processing of applications, reduce costs and lead to better overall design.
If the significance of a site has been clearly understood from the start (based on how the site has changed through time and what survives today), then we can better understand the impact of the proposed development and seek to minimise its impact.
Design and access statements
If you are submitting a design and access statement, you also need to submit an HIA. The HIA may form part of the design and access statement but the design and access statement is not a substitute for it.
Who should prepare the HIA
The level of detail in the assessment will depend on the heritage asset and the extent of the proposal. The HIA should be written by anyone competent to do so.
In some cases, this may be the heritage asset owner but, for a complex heritage asset with high levels of significance, it is advisable to employ a heritage professional such as a conservation architect, architectural historian or building archaeologist.
Independent bodies such as the Register of Architects Accredited in Building Conservationand the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists include a database of qualified professionals.
Consulting the Historic Environment Record (HER)
The NPPF says that, as a minimum, you should consult the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER). The HER will typically include digitised records of archaeological sites and finds, historic buildings, and historic parks and gardens.
The Nottinghamshire HER is managed by Nottinghamshire County Council and can be accessed via the Heritage Gateway which includes spatial depictions of archaeological features, historic buildings, historic parks and gardens, battlefields, scheduled monuments and village cores.
The HER is located at County Hall, and the Heritage Team can be contacted by email: heritage@nottscc.gov.uk.
In addition to the HER, you may find information in other external archival sources, including: