Introduction

English Heritage (formerly the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) was established by the National Heritage Act 1983. It is the government's official adviser on all matters concerning the conservation of the built heritage and the major source of non-Lottery public funding for archaeology, conservation areas, and repairs to historic buildings and ancient monuments. It is one of the Heritage Lottery Fund's Principal advisers on their grant-giving. It is also responsible for the management and presentation of 409 historic properties in the nation's care.

English Heritage's principal aims are:

• to secure the conservation of England's historic sites, monuments, buildings and areas;

• to promote people's enjoyment of this shared heritage; and

• to raise the understanding and awareness of the heritage and thereby increase commitment to its protection.

The Commission is the governing body of English Heritage. Commissioners are appointed, usually for three years, by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for their knowledge or experience of history, archaeology, architecture, the preservation of monuments, buildings or objects, town and country planning, estate management, tourism, commerce, finance and local government.

The Chairman (currently Sir Jocelyn Stevens CVO) has particular responsibility for formulating the Commission's overall strategy for discharging its statutory duties and for representing the views of the Commission to the general public.

The Chief Executive is responsible to the Chairman and Commissioners for all aspects of the day-to-day management of English Heritage and heads a management team of seven departmental directors.

Achievements in 1996/97

In 1996/97 English Heritage exceeded the targets set for visitor numbers (up 11%), membership (up 13%) and income from the public (up 17%) whilst maintaining a very high visitor satisfaction rating of 8.6 out of 10. EH also established a further 20 local management agreements for its properties, bringing the total to 127 (out of 409).

A new joint grant scheme for churches was launched in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund and EH provided advice to HLF on more than 1,000 applications of all kinds. £35.5 million was offered through EH's own grant schemes, 211 conservation area partnerships with local authorities were supported and archaeology projects to the value of £5.4 million were commissioned.

The number of delegation agreements with London Boroughs was also increased to 30 (out of 33) and EH issued a formal co-operation statement with the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in England (RCHME) on their respective survey needs and roles. In collaboration with RCHME and DNH, EH completed to schedule, and launched, the new computerised list of historic buildings.

Following the successful privatisation of the directly employed labour force, design and works services were outsourced. The effect of these initiatives has been to reduce staff complement by over 250 (16%) against 1995/96. Administrative costs were held at 12.5% of expenditure.

A major bid was submitted to the Millennium Fund to support the PFI proposals for the Stonehenge Millennium Park.

EH won grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund for enhancements to visitor facilities at St Augustine's, Canterbury and Whitby Abbey.

To extend its customer consultation procedures EH launched new feedback leaflets at all its staffed sites and an equivalent exercise for grant applicants. A diagnostic staff attitudes survey was undertaken to establish a baseline for a staff development programme following the principles of Investors in People.

Plans for 1997/98

1997 marked the 1,400th anniversary of St Augustine's arrival in Britain and EH will be celebrating England's Christian Heritage through the themed presentation of the many ecclesiastical properties it both manages and supports through grants and advice. This summer EH is opening a new Museum at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury and the restored cascade at Chiswick, both assisted by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In 1997/98 EH proposes to spend one-third of the grant received from government on its conservation grant schemes, whilst continuing to discuss with the Heritage Lottery Fund the best use of their respective funding for the benefit of the heritage as a whole. In particular the HLF have agreed a collaborative approach to conservation area funding for the next three years, pending consultation on the long term scope of their own proposed townscape schemes.

English Heritage will also:

• publish its major survey of Monuments at Risk;

• continue to provide advice to owners, local authorities, Government and Lottery distributors both informally and through the exercise of statutory controls;

• commission and undertake archaeological programmes to advance understanding of the past;

• maintain and develop research programmes into technical solutions for the conservation of historic buildings, monuments and their contents;

• spend £4.3 million (direct cost) on clearing the backlog of repair on properties inherited from Government;

• spend £5.5 million on improving its sites for visitors, linking this funding to bids to Lottery distributors and European funds where appropriate;

• maintain progress towards completing the restoration of the Albert Memorial in 1999;

• aim to increase the income earned from the public by 6.5%;

• develop new funding from sponsorship and donations; and

• continue to seek cost reductions through its business review programme, and the second stage of its Quinquennial Review (FMPR).

Key Performance Targets
	1994/95		1995/96		1996/97		1997/98
Key Measure	Set	Achieved	Set	Achieved	Set	Achieved	Set
Increase income from the public (£m)	14.7	14.8	16.1	15.9	17.2	18.0	19.2
Increase membership (000's)	315	310	349	331	353	374	393
Increase visitor numbers (million):
a) to staffed sites	5.0	5.0	5.4	5.3	5.4	5.9	5.7
b) to non-staffed sites (est)	-	4.8	-	5.1	-	5.4	-
Total	9.8	10.4	11.2
Increase / maintain visitor satisfaction	>7.74	8.43	>8.43	8.69	>8.69	8.63	>8.5
Turn round:
a) of grant applications within six months (%)	75	77	75	69	75	72	75
b) of scheduled monument consent applications within 3 months (%)	70	80	70	76	75	73	75
c) of listed building consent notifications within 28 days (%)	70	74	70	78	70	77	70