Heritage at Risk Register: Listing, Owner Duties, and Removal

The Heritage at Risk Register is Historic England’s annual record of protected historic sites in England that face loss through neglect, decay, or unsympathetic change. Historic England manages the programme, publishes national statistics each August, and updates the full searchable register in November.¹ A site only appears once it already carries formal legal protection, and inclusion triggers a structured response: assessment, technical advice, possible grant funding, and, where an owner fails to act, legal enforcement.

Which Sites Are Eligible

Eligibility depends on what kind of heritage asset the site is, and the rules are not the same across the board.

For non-religious buildings and structures, only those listed at Grade I or Grade II* qualify. Grade II listed buildings are included only if they are in London.² Structural scheduled monuments with upstanding remains fall into this same category.

Places of worship follow a different rule. A church, chapel, or other religious building listed at any grade, including Grade II, qualifies regardless of location, provided it is used as a public place of worship at least six times a year.² Places of worship are assessed on physical condition alone; occupancy does not apply. If the building is in very bad or poor condition, it goes on the register.

The register also covers scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, protected wreck sites, and conservation areas.³ Each of these has its own assessment method. Buried archaeology is judged on archaeological risk rather than building condition, and protected wreck sites are assessed for environmental threats such as biological decay, coastal erosion, seabed erosion, and climate change.⁴

How Risk Is Scored

For buildings and structures, assessment turns on two things: condition and occupancy.

Condition is graded on a four-point scale: very bad, poor, fair, or good. Most buildings on the register are very bad or poor, but some in fair or good condition remain listed while agreed solutions are still being implemented. Occupancy is recorded as vacant, part occupied, occupied, not applicable, or unknown. An occupied building is generally less vulnerable than a vacant one. Many entries fall under “not applicable” because they are ruins, walls, gates, or boundary stones that were never built to be occupied.²

Each entry is then assigned a priority category from A to F. For buildings and structures:

A. Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss, with no solution agreed.
B. Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss, but a solution has been agreed and is awaiting implementation.
C. Slow decay, with no solution agreed.
D. Slow decay, but a solution has been agreed and is awaiting implementation.
E. The building is under repair or in fair to good condition, but no user has been identified, or it faces the threat of vacancy with no obvious new user.
F. A repair scheme is in progress and, where relevant, an end use or user has been identified.⁵

For archaeology, parks and gardens, battlefields, wreck sites, and conservation areas, the middle categories use trend-based language instead. Category B means an action strategy has been agreed but not implemented where the trend is declining or unknown; category D means the same where the trend is stable or improving.⁵

Conservation areas are judged as whole neighbourhoods rather than individual buildings. An area is at risk if it has deteriorated over the previous three years or is expected to deteriorate over the next three, based on a census form completed by the local authority.⁶ The harms tend to be cumulative: unsympathetic replacement doors and windows, poor road and pavement maintenance, loss of boundary walls and hedges, and clutter from satellite dishes and signage.

What Happens Once a Site Is Listed

Inclusion on the register is meant to open the door to help. Historic England works with owners, local authorities, community groups, and developers to find solutions for at-risk sites.³ That support comes in two forms.

The first is technical advice. Historic England can arrange visits from conservation architects, surveyors, and inspectors, who assess what repairs are needed and advise on how to do them without damaging historic fabric.¹ For conservation areas, the organisation helps local authorities assess condition and develop strategies.

The second is money. Historic England offers grants that typically range from £1,000 to £500,000, with no fixed minimum or maximum, covering emergency repairs, feasibility studies, or larger conservation projects.⁷ Being on the register does not guarantee funding, but it puts a site within the programme’s priorities.

What Owners Can Be Required to Do

If an owner does nothing, local authorities and Historic England have legal tools that escalate.

Under Section 54 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, a local authority, or Historic England in London, can carry out emergency repairs on an unoccupied listed building after giving the owner at least seven days’ written notice.⁸ These urgent works are limited to the minimum needed to keep the building weatherproof, safe from collapse, or protected from vandalism, and the cost can be recovered from the owner.⁹ An owner has 28 days from service of the recovery notice to make representations to the Secretary of State, arguing the works were unnecessary, the amount unreasonable, or that paying would cause hardship.¹⁰

Where neglect is drawn out rather than urgent, a local authority can serve a repairs notice under Section 48. Repairs notices apply to occupied buildings as well and can require anything reasonably necessary to preserve the building in its current state. They cannot demand restoration of features already lost before listing.⁹

If at least two months pass after a repairs notice is served and the owner has not taken reasonable steps, the authority can begin compulsory purchase proceedings under Section 47.¹¹ The Secretary of State must confirm the order and be satisfied that resources exist to carry out the repairs. An owner can challenge the order in a magistrates’ court by showing that reasonable preservation steps have been taken, with a further right of appeal to the Crown Court.

Compulsory purchase is rare. Policy favours keeping historic buildings in private hands, and authorities are encouraged to find a building preservation trust or private buyer to take on the work. Where an owner has deliberately let a building deteriorate to justify demolition and redevelopment, the Act allows for minimum compensation, which can mean the owner receives far less than market value.⁹

How At-Risk Status Affects Planning Decisions

The condition of a heritage asset, and the effect of that condition on financial viability, is a material consideration in planning decisions.¹² An applicant proposing to convert a neglected listed building into flats or a hotel may find a planning authority more open to changes it would otherwise resist, if those changes are the only realistic way to save the structure. Reducing or removing risks to a heritage asset is itself treated as a public benefit that can be weighed against harm from the proposed work.

There is a limit. Where evidence shows an owner has deliberately damaged or neglected a heritage asset to make consent easier to obtain, the planning authority must disregard the deteriorated condition when making its decision.¹² Strategic neglect is not rewarded.

Suggesting a Site for the Register

Members of the public and local groups can suggest heritage assets for inclusion. Historic England accepts suggestions through its website and then decides whether to send one of its conservation architects, surveyors, or inspectors to visit.³ Historic England staff make the final decision to add or remove a site following that visit.¹ The programme depends partly on local knowledge to catch assets that might otherwise go unnoticed between assessment cycles.

How Sites Come Off the Register

A site is removed when the threats that put it there have been resolved. For buildings and structures, that means being fully repaired or consolidated, having a secured future, and, where the building is capable of use, being occupied.¹ A building stays on the register while solutions are being implemented, even if progress is going well, so that repair work is seen through to completion. Historic England treats beneficial use, meaning enough income to cover ongoing maintenance, as central to long-term security for any building capable of occupation.

For conservation areas, the local authority must provide an updated assessment showing that issues have been identified, plans are in place, and positive progress is being made. Recognised reasons for removal include an improved management plan or a heritage partnership agreement addressing the specific problems.¹

Between publication cycles, sites are added and removed internally as conditions change. Those updates feed the following August’s national statistics and the November edition of the searchable register.

1
Historic England. Heritage at Risk Statistics Method Statement 2025
2
Historic England. Selection Criteria for Inclusion in the Heritage at Risk Register
3
Historic England. Heritage at Risk
4
Historic England. Historic Wreck Sites at Risk: A Risk Management Toolkit
5
Historic England. Terms and Abbreviations Explained
6
Historic England. Heritage at Risk Conservation Areas Booklet
7
Historic England. Grants
8
UK Government. Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 – Section 54
9
GOV.UK. The Upkeep and Repair of Historic Buildings
10
GOV.UK. Section 55 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
11
UK Government. Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 – Section 47
12
GOV.UK. Conserving and Enhancing the Historic Environment