22 CONTEXT 183 : MARCH 2025 The Culture and Heritage Capital Programme The DCMS Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC) programme is making significant strides in developing and promoting evidence of the wellbeing impact of culture and heritage. The pioneering programme aims to ensure that the economic, social and cultural value of culture and heritage is included in appraisals and evaluations, following best practice guidance set out by HM Treasury’s The Green Book. By investing in a programme of research the DCMS aims to more comprehensively evidence the value and impact that cultural and heritage sectors have on long-term standards of living and wellbeing. At the end of 2024, the DCMS released a report examining the wellbeing impact of a range of arts and cultural goods, demonstrating the positive effects of engaging with arts and culture. Although heritage was less featured in the study, as the evidence for robust quantification was limited, this is expected to change as more research is conducted. In March 2024, Historic England published the first of a series of CHC programme funded research projects. The research showed that everyday passive interactions with cultural heritage could enhance individual wellbeing.⁹ Using an HM Treasury-approved approach to wellbeing valuation, the study assigned a monetary value to the life satisfaction impact using the WELLBY approach. It demonstrated that the very existence of cultural heritage in a place impacted residents’ quality of life, above and beyond individual usage patterns and after controlling for individual and neighbourhood effects. On average across England, individual life satisfaction gained from proximity to heritage is valued at approximately £515 per person, with an aggregate total of £29 billion for England. The study highlights that heritage does not just enhance our surroundings; it significantly boosts our life satisfaction. The use of a wellbeing measure was also able to show something unique: the existence and abundance of local heritage, rather than the presence of rare, exceptional Grade I and II* heritage assets, were the main drivers of higher life satisfaction. The study concluded that policies that preserved and increased access to historic resources could serve as effective pathways to improving our national wellbeing, for both current and future generations. Looking ahead, the future of wellbeing as a metric appears promising. It is gaining recognition as an important indicator of public welfare and offers a methodology to assess the broad range of benefits that heritage provides, often more effectively than traditional economic measures. If the heritage sector recognises the significance of this from both policy and private perspectives, it will make the case for investment in the sector much stronger. Thomas Colwill is the senior economist at Historic England, conducting a range of differing economic research projects on heritage, aligned with the Culture and Heritage Capital Programme. Adala Leeson is head of social and economic research at Historic England, leading a team that undertakes social, economic and environmental research. She has worked closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to develop the Culture and Heritage Capital Programme. ⁹ Colwill, T. (2023) ‘Heritage capital and wellbeing: examining the relationship between heritage density and life satisfaction’, Historic England Research Reports. School children engaging with Sunderland’s historic high streets heritage action zone (Photo: Alun Bull, Historic England)
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