2025 is the 10th Anniversary of World Heritage UK. Prior to 2015, there was the Local Authority World Heritage Forum (or LAWHF). Around that time it was recognised that the management structures and partnerships of the UK’s World Heritage Sites were becoming more complex and included members outside of Local Authorities. And so WHUK was formed to embrace the wider family of World Heritage stakeholders.
With WHUK’s spring workshop being held in London, we felt it was opportune to celebrate our anniversary by hosting a drinks reception at Parliament. On the evening of 30 April, workshop delegates and invited guests mingled and networked at Portcullis House, hosted by Bath MP Wera Hobhouse.
WHUK’s President Chris Blandford OBE FLI gave a speech to welcome attendees and to mark the anniversary. Here is his speech.
Welcome
“Welcome to our celebration of the 10th anniversary of the establishment World Heritage UK (WHUK). We are grateful to Wera Hobhouse MP for being our Parliamentary host here in Portcullis House tonight. Our thanks to Baroness Fiona Twycross, the Minister for Heritage and Gambling and DCMS Lords Minister and to other Peers, MPs, and other sector leaders for joining us. We greatly appreciate the sponsorship provided by Cornish Metals for our event.”
A Birthday Celebration for World Heritage UK and UNESCO
“Created in 2015, WHUK is delighted to share its 10th birthday year with another birthday – the establishment of UNESCO 80 years ago in the aftermath of World War Two. UNESCO‘s anniversary is highlighting their work since then in promoting peace, education, scientific cooperation and cultural exchange with an emphasis on their role in protecting and promoting the world’s cultural heritage and natural heritage including its World Heritage Sites.”
World Heritage Sites as Ambassadors for Peace
“In the daily work and considerable demands of planning, protecting and managing our World Heritage Sites it is easy to lose sight of the importance of the fundamental principles that have always underpinned UNESCO. One such is the 1946 founding objective that has a particular resonance for all of us today and for the next generations:
“Since wars began in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed”
As I speak at various events, I increasingly include this as a starting point to remind us that we can all contribute to this. At a distant we can experience through the ever present and ubiquitous media the ravages of conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. We now need more than ever to raise the awareness of our inheritance and commitment to World Heritage and recognise how this can contribute to collaboration and peace making internationally, nationally and locally. During 2024 WHUK is proud to have participated in and sponsored the call for this in the World Heritage Sites as “Ambassadors for Peace” Project published by the UNESCO Chair at Newcastle University. Raising the awareness of World Heritage values and benefits at all levels of society in the UK remains and will continue to remain at the heart of WHUK’s work.”
World Heritage Convention Obligations
“UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention was established in 1972 and was focused on protecting natural and cultural heritage of places that have been identified as having outstanding universal value (OUV) and inscribed on to the World Heritage List. As of 2024 there were 1223 World Heritage Sites in 193 countries. The UK ratified the Convention in 1984 and as State Party is now responsible for protecting and managing 35 World Heritage Sites. The Government obligation in relation to the management of UK World Heritage Sites is summed up in the UNESCO Operational Guidelines as:
“Each State Party…recognise the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage…”
Significance of World Heritage in the UK
“It has been a 41-year journey from the inscription of the first World Heritage Sites in the UK. Initially in the 80s the nomination and inscription process was relatively simple with the inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List primarily of “monocentric sites” such as castles and cathedrals which already had existing national designations. By the 90s the sites being inscribed such as cultural landscapes and townscapes were becoming more complex with multiple stakeholders and owners together with extensive buffer and wider zones. In the last 20 years the sites included the UK World Heritage Collection have become ever more diverse, complex and challenging to protect and manage particularly with the reduction of public funding.
Arguably, the Collection does now represent the “best of the best” of our cultural heritage inheritance. The diversity of our sites demonstrate in a spectacular way 5000 years of our history from the Bronze Age, through the technical and social advances of the industrial revolution to the scientific innovations of the 20th century. Taken together these allow us to celebrate and explain our incredible “island story” and the positive impact of this country across the world both in the past and in setting precedents for the future. However, our Collection is, in many respects, also still a “sleeping giant” in terms of its potential as an asset for UK Soft Power and global influence. The “Iconic Sites“ (some 50% of the Collection) such as Stonehenge and the Tower of London are well known tourist destinations with World Heritage being an important ingredient of this. There are however many unknown “Hidden Gems” such as Derwent Valley Mills or Saltaire where World Heritage values and their potential contribution have yet to be fully appreciated. Our local World Heritage managers in such sites work hard to raise awareness and promote the benefits that World Heritage inscription brings including being a catalyst for regeneration and inward investment, a sense of civic pride, and improvements to community wellbeing. The evidence for such benefits is increasing but we are not yet making the most of the rich cultural and natural heritage inheritance that our World Heritage Sites offer nor are we fully investing in this.
The processes required by UNESCO for the nomination and inscription of World Heritage Sites have become increasingly demanding and expensive but the application documents and management plans produced by the UK are much admired from elsewhere. WHUK regularly provides assistance and advice on how UK good practice can be applied by other countries seeking to reveal their own places that have outstanding universal value.”
Evolution and Role of World Heritage UK
“World Heritage UK is an independent membership organisation incorporated as a charity. In representing the all UK World Heritage Sites, it is exclusively focused on World Heritage in the UK, and is the only organisation that is led by the sites themselves. This reflects a community driven approach that has proven effective at many sites and which is favoured by UNESCO
A great deal has been achieved by WHUK in its first 10 years thanks in large part to the considerable efforts of our volunteers. Locally, we provide invaluable support and professional development for those involved in local management of the sites and the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Nationally, we undertake advocacy to champion the cause of World Heritage across the UK, and collaboratively promote the raising of public awareness of the value and benefits of World Heritage.
In its first five years, WHUK established its constitution and reached out to the sites it represented and to the many other diverse heritage organisations to raise awareness of its unique role in the sector. In 2020 the launch of WHUK’s comprehensive and ground breaking report UK World Heritage: Asset for the Future established the credibility of WHUK with other agencies. The report highlighted WHUK’s mission to raise the profile and secure the future of the UK collection of sites by advocating for support, resources and recognition, together with facilitating learning and networking, and promoting the sites and their values. Despite Brexit, Covid and a changing economic context, the messages and strategic framework set out in the Asset report remain very relevant today.
In the last five years WHUK put in place business planning to ensure resilience and sustainability and continued to intensify local, national and international engagement and collaboration, has built capacity, and increased its knowledge base. WHUK has become a respected, independent, influential and collective voice for both the World Heritage sector and wider heritage sector even though remaining a relatively small organisation dependent for the most part on its own voluntary resources and limited membership budget.”
What is WHUK Doing Now?
“Yes, we do continue to ”punch above our weight” and is active on many fronts so here are a few examples.
There are over 80 organisations in the UK who have an interest in the UK World Heritage sector – a confusing “jigsaw “and complicated governance picture. WHUK has emerged as having a pivotal role that assists in filling the gap between central agencies and the on the ground managers and coordinators at each site. The central agencies (DCMS, Historic England and others) need to focus on the World Heritage processes required by UNESCO and policy making necessary for Convention compliance while the heroic and often isolated World Heritage Site coordinators are tasked with managing the protection and challenges at each World Heritage Site on the ground.
The continued raising of awareness of the value and benefits of UK World Heritage is fundamental to improving the understanding of World Heritage at all levels and is a shared goal with others in the sector so we continue to make this a priority in collaboration with the central agencies and other organisations including the UK National Commission for UNESCO, ICOMOS, and others.
WHUK’s trustees, members, and volunteers form a comprehensive hub of specialists with technical knowledge that uniquely combines knowledge of UNESCO requirement and processes with deep knowledge of the diverse issues that are faced locally by the site managers and coordinators. WHUK’s team regularly provide advice to Government, Local Authorities, and others in relation, for example, to the Tentative List Evaluation Panel and the DCMS World Heritage Advisory Group. As an independent voice WHUK will, during 2025, also be involved in a newly formed All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on World Heritage.
The WHUK webinar series on World Heritage Sites have long proved popular with an autumn 2025 webinar series that will include presentations from a selection of European World Heritage Sites. WHUK continues to regularly engage with and share knowledge with emerging European Network of World Heritage Associations (ENWHA), a group incorporating the equivalents of WHUK in 15 different European Countries. WHUK also maintains regular contact with UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris.
In addition to the regular conferences, webinars, educational events, and forums that WHUK provides for it members, we also undertake key research when funding is available. For 2025/2026 with support from Historic England we are continuing our study of “Realising the Benefits of World Heritage to Local Communities”. Given the complexity and diversity of the UK World Heritage Sites, we want to understand better how at the grass roots level different communities can be encouraged to engage with World Heritage and what barriers there are to this.”
How Can World Heritage Contribute to Current Government Agendas?
“Our planning and heritage protection systems are under close scrutiny as Government considers how to enable growth and more efficiency in the economy. There is increasing understanding that our national heritage can contribute to balanced growth through heritage realising opportunity rather than being a “blocker”. World Heritage Sites can play their part in this. WHUK believe that our amazing Collection of World Heritage Sites have great the potential to further contribute to Government achieving its current missions concerned with growth, tourism, health, heritage-led regeneration, education and energy. There is more work to do to progress this but our initial thoughts include that our World Heritage Sites can play a key role in:
- – Growing the economy as they can balance and provide the setting for well-designed development, with access to local, healthy and special places, particularly in less favoured parts of the UK
- – Underpinning the success of tourism as iconic heritage destinations that add a very significant contribution to the UK’s visitor economy by being some of the most popular attractions nationally and internationally
- – Setting precedents for future clean energy use as places that in the past demonstrated the provision of sustainable energy generation, and how lessons can be learned from this
- – Meeting the challenges of the climate emergency as landscapes that can make a critical contribution to climate change mitigation, nature recovery and biodiversity
- – Unlocking the potential of our rich cultural inheritance as a collection of internationally important sites which can strengthen our national cultural cohesion, demonstrate national values and achievements, and provide tangible assets for projecting British soft power on the international stage”
And Finally…
“As it moves into its next 10 years, WHUK will continue to contribute its energy, enthusiasm, and expertise to the proper planning, protection and management of the UK’s World Heritage Sites. These sites are a remarkable resource and a central part of the UK’s cultural inheritance. We will strive to realise our vision for the World Heritage Collection which includes establishing a National World Heritage Strategy, ensuring the sites are well protected and managed, are better known and understood, and are resilient and sustainably funded. In addition, and no less important, ensure that the sites provide inspiration, learning and benefits for their local communities and their future generations.”
Image L-R: WHUK Chair Paul Simons, Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross, WHUK President Chris Blandford
