Jowell Must Fight For Heritage Funding

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 25th Jan 2007

Commenting ahead of the Protecting and Preserving our Heritage debate in the House of Commons today, Liberal Democrat Arts and Heritage Spokesperson, Paul Holmes MP said:

"The report produced by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee gave a thorough and accurate portrayal of the problems facing the heritage sector. The Government's response to the report has been complacent and demonstrates the complete lack of understanding of heritage issues in Tessa Jowell's department.

English Heritage has had a funding cut in real terms of £9.7 million since 2000/01, yet the Government claims it has sufficient resources to fulfil its functions. How can it be expected to undertake the additional leadership role demanded by the Heritage Protection Review with such a drastically reduced budget? Tessa Jowell must finally take the heritage sector seriously and fight for proper funding to prevent the destruction of such a critically important national asset."