Just 16% of council officers feel confident making decisions about retrofit measures for heritage buildings, research has found.

According to a new report from Grosvenor, titled ‘Retrofit or Ruin’, the outdated heritage planning system is resulting in historic buildings becoming ‘uninhabitable, unaffordable and ultimately redundant’.

The research reveals that councils dedicate roughly 4,000 working days annually to approving low-risk retrofit works for listed buildings. But while 93% of the Listed Building Consent applications are approved, just one in three are agreed within the necessary eight-week time period.

Grosvenor argues that 30% of the annual reductions in emissions required to meet the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget could be achieved by retrofitting listed properties in conservation areas across England and Wales.

However, the report warns that three million of these listed buildings in England are blocked from receiving even basic energy efficiency upgrades due to the ineffectiveness of the heritage planning system.

It found that 87% of historic building owners view the current planning system as a ‘major barrier’ to carrying out property adaptations.

The report also proposes that an economic output of roughly £35bn a year could be unlocked in the UK if retrofit measures for heritage buildings were facilitated at scale. This could support 205,000 workers, as well as reducing operational carbon emissions by as much as 7.7 MtCO2 annually, the research suggests.

To achieve large-scale reform of the English heritage planning system, the report calls for the production of a national model Local Development Order to help streamline planning processes, as well as the rollout of a Heritage Capacity and Skills Programme that equips councils with conservation expertise.

Additionally, it urges the Government to implement a National Listed Building Consent Order to support ‘low-risk, high-benefit retrofit measures’, and to accelerate the National Planning Policy Framework reforms that promote retrofit as a valuable long-term approach.

Tor Burrows, Chief Sustainability Officer at Grosvenor, said: ‘Retrofitting historic buildings needs to happen across millions of buildings, not slowly, one application at a time.

‘Whilst local authorities undoubtedly face significant resource constraints, a system that requires individual approvals for low risk, routine retrofit interventions which are almost always approved but takes months to do so is no longer protecting heritage, it is holding back climate action.’

He added that Grosvenor’s proposed reforms will support the delivery of the Government’s £15bn Warm Homes Plan and enable homes to be improved ‘at the pace this decade demands’.