Creating resilient heritage estates

Resilience is not about resisting change, it is about embracing it strategically. 

Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register 2025 reveals a troubling trend: 1,460 buildings and structures are currently at risk, an increase since 2024. Each entry represents a threat to an important piece of our collective identity and culture. When these assets fall into disrepair or redundancy, communities lose more than buildings; they lose anchors for interaction, memories and pride. 

Heritage estates must therefore become more resilient to change. Resilience isn’t just about resistance; it means adapting to modern user requirements whilst responding to evolving safety and environmental standards. Ensuring a building remains relevant to the community it serves is a fundamental aspect of good stewardship. Custodians of heritage estates must assess how they can future-proof their assets whilst maintaining historic integrity.  

Without measured efforts to preserve, but also evolve, our built heritage, Historic England’s register will continue to grow and cherished buildings risk slipping further from relevance in our rapidly modernising world.  

Adapting to modern user needs 

The journey to resilience begins with a deceptively simple question: why? Why does this building matter today, and why will it matter tomorrow? Answering requires a robust feasibility study and business case that considers: 

• Current users: What do they value, and what frustrates them? 

• Prospective users: Could adapting a building’s key facilities attract new audiences? For example, underutilised religious buildings have successfully been repurposed into retail, office or residential spaces, breathing new life into unused spaces. 

• Local context: Future usage must align with community needs. Office space demands strong transport links, while cultural venues thrive in areas with active civic engagement.  

This decision is not trivial. It can dictate the next five to five hundred years of a building's story. Custodians must balance heritage integrity with contemporary relevance, ensuring adaptation enhances rather than erodes the building’s character and utility. 

A great example of such a plan in action can be seen at the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station in London. Once derelict, this icon on the South Bank skyline now thrives as a mixed-use hub of homes, offices, retail sites and leisure. Saved from dereliction and decay, the site is now an economic and social hub in South London and a testament to the strengths of pivoting a building’s purpose to align with the demands of a modern user base.  

Adapting to a changing climate 

Resilience also concerns standing up to a changing environment. As a result of a steadily warming climate, the UK faces increasingly frequent heatwaves, cold snaps and flooding risks. Heritage estates, often built long before modern insulation or flood defences, are particularly vulnerable.  

Historic England stresses that climate change can cause deterioration through flooding, coastal erosion, overheating, or moisture accumulation. Retrofitting for climate resilience is therefore essential. Practitioners should take a holistic approach to intervention, ensuring that measures are balanced against the building’s historic importance. Such considerations might include the introduction of secondary glazing systems, or the sensitive addition of additional insulation layers. 

Protective measures are also important and could include installing discreet flood barriers in areas particularly vulnerable to water ingress. The project to protect homes and businesses in Ironbridge from flooding at the River Severn is one such example. 

Creating longterm stewards across communities

Resilience is not only physical, but also social. Buildings thrive when communities care for them. Empowering local advocates and volunteer groups to act as stewards can minimise risks and foster long term sustainability, providing protection across successive generations. 

Training local groups in disaster preparedness, maintenance, and advocacy ensures that heritage estates are not left vulnerable to neglect. Communities often prefer to see buildings repurposed and cared for rather than abandoned. As Historic England emphasises, heritage “gives meaning to the places where people live, work and spend time, connects us, inspires creativity, and boosts economic growth”.  

By embedding stewardship, heritage estates become more than relics; they become living assets woven into the fabric of local identity and poised to endure so that future generations may benefit from both their utility and sense of place. 

A call to action 

The growing Heritage at Risk Register is a warning, but also an opportunity. With thoughtful approaches to building use, climate resilience, and empowered communities, heritage estates can remain vital for generations, with new life breathed into them through adaptive use and well considered custodial care. 

At Mace Consult, we believe resilience is not about resisting change, it is about embracing it strategically, ensuring that heritage buildings continue to inspire, serve and endure. The task ahead is challenging, but the reward is profound, and with news from the Culture Secretary that a “Bumper” £1.5 billion will be invested into saving and preserving heritage buildings, there is hope yet that our country’s heritage estates will be ready for the future.