Heritage consultancy projects
Whilst a number of heritage sites can attract high footfall, they face significant financial challenges. The conservation and restoration of the historic fabric buildings (and collections) is ongoing; the cost of seemingly small repair jobs can quickly escalate. This can often only be met through a large capital injection, which can in part be sourced from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, private donations, and philanthropy.
Heritage organisations have also suffered from cuts to core funding, which not only impacts the ability to plan for the future but also the day-to-day operation of the sites they manage. This can lead to underinvestment in individual sites, and long-term maintenance and repairs may be affected, which in turn may lead to a decline in the quality of the visitor experience. Additionally, some heritage organisations also have a small core team of professional staff or volunteers to take on new projects. It takes investment, specific resources (often including recruiting new staff with specialist capabilities), and time to build capacity and potentially change the culture of the organisation.
Planning Solutions Consulting helps heritage organisations become more resilient, financially and operationally.
What we do
- Business plans to support funding bids, including National Heritage Lottery Fund applications
- Income generation and expenditure reviews
- Governance support, including partnership working between trusts and local authorities
- Visitor management plans and masterplans
- Assessing opportunities for physical development and capacity building
We don’t prepare activity plans, interpretation plans, or designs ourselves, but we work closely with activity planners, interpretation specialists, conservation architects, and landscape architects.
Find out more about our heritage consultancy projects.
Clients we’ve worked with
• Forty Hall Estate, Enfield Council: Preparation of a business development study with financial analysis
• The Pavilion Gardens, High Peak Borough Council/Staffordshire Moorlands District Council: Operational review and income generation
• 22-heritage assets, Southampton City Council: Identification and evaluation of the income generation potential of heritage assets
• George Eliot Heritage Centre, Warwickshire County Council: Business plan for a George Eliot Heritage Centre
• Carew Castle and Tidal Mill, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority: Business Plan
• Urquhart Castle, Historic Environment Scotland: Prepared a Monument and Community Support Strategy
While we don’t prepare activity plans, interpretation plans or designs, we regularly work with activity planners, interpretation experts, conservation architects and landscape architects.
Added value: Direct operational experience
Our sister company, Planning Solutions Limited, invests in and manages heritage and other attractions directly, including Kent Life, a heritage farm park in Maidstone; CONKERS, a discovery centre in the National Forest; and the Cotswold Beach and Country Park. Between 2010 and 2022, PSL also reopened and managed the National Brewery Centre (formerly the Bass Museum) in Burton upon Trent, managing everything from staffing and marketing to catering, retail, events, education and collections.
What our clients say
“We commissioned PSC to support our client team comprising County Council officers, and volunteers from the George Eliot Fellowship, and Griff House Preservation Trust, to develop a viable business plan for a new Visitor Centre devoted to the author, based at Griff House, just outside Nuneaton. The work involved close collaboration and consultation with the Trust and wider Eliot stakeholders to work through the business plan and also deliver a longer-term vision and development plan for related Eliot attractions in the area. Throughout the process we found Richard and Kevin accessible, reliable and great to work with, always meeting agreed deadlines. Their work on the options appraisal was extremely thorough and well-informed, drawing both on their valuable in-house operational management experience of running heritage attractions, as well as case studies from other centres across Britain. The final report has been extremely well received and we’re looking forward to sharing the findings more widely at a workshop later this year. I would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending PSC to undertake similar work.” Alex Holmes, Visitor Economy Manager, Warwickshire County Council
How can we help?
Whether you’re managing a single heritage site or overseeing a wider portfolio of heritage properties, we can help you build a stronger financial and operational footing, from an initial options appraisal through to a fully costed business plan ready for funders.
If you’d like to talk through a heritage project or simply want a second opinion on an existing plan, call Richard Linington on 07866 742628 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk. We’re happy to have an informal, no-obligation conversation, whatever stage you’re at.