His latest video - which he has made himself -is intended~ to stimulate financial support for the restoration of listed buildings in:a small block of larld in Liverpool; this to create workspace for self-employed people, regenerating the city and not just the historic buildings. His video was intended to show what could be done, and encourage others to come in and manage the project once they realized what was required - leaving the architect to concentrate on the fabric not the finance. This was to be another recurring theme -the architect or conservationist as the 'envisager', showing (if necessary by example) what could be achieved; this role had been referred to by Dr ~itchie, Director of the Merseyside Development Corporation when he remarked that developers and customers did not necessarily know what they wanted until someone had the vision to do it and show them. Keynote lecture SIMON JENKINS, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commissioner and Political Editor of The Economist, spoke -he saidinformally as an individual rather than officially as a Commissioner and Chairman of the Historic Areas Committee. It was traditional, he said, to praise what had already been achieved before going into the attack (which was clearly expected, as John Fidler had billed this as a 'provocati_ve discourse'). He therefore praised the re-listing programme, and the gradual change of attitude which had broadened the definition of what was worthy of conservation, to include virtually the whole country as a conservation resource. The HBMC, although constrained financially, itself represented an advance as it was released from the control of central government. Then he identified the problems; rising expectations for grant from HBMC, and the resulting need to reduce tfie percentage of grant to each applicant; the collapse of Housing Improvement Grant as a major resource for hosuing repair; the loss of the Metropolitan Counties and the GLC; and the fact that conservationists appear to be losing the initiative to the 'loony Right' through resting on past laurels. His precepts for conservationists included "less aesthetics., more economics" - we must be wary of the danger of not appearing to be part of the Real World. We need therefore to adopt the tough language of urban economics; the urgent need for building maintainance to be encouraged, the economic benefits of tourism. Locally, for example, we need to show councillors the visible benefits of investment in the historic environment as a tourism resource. The need for a higher political profile was also re-iterated; we should find ways of playing a more active political role nationally and locally, establishing a strong political lobby for the conservation of the built environment. We must capture the imagination of the young im the way that the nature conservation movement had already done, and mobilise the silent majority -probably millions more agreed with us than didn't. HBMCgrants and casework Simon Jenkins' mos.t radical prescriptions concerned the way in which grants and casework are handled. He has been surprised by the amount of time devoted to the minutiae of casework in relation to Section 10 and Section 3A grants, and favours devolution of as much as possible of this to local planning authorities. He would prefer to see money spent on making this delegation work properly; if anything, more should be spent on staff at HBMCat Inspector level, and less on grants. Resources should be concentrated more on Town .Schemes which generated money from local authoiities. Ways should be found of encouraging local authorities to enlist the support of others - trusts, housing associations. Public relations HBMCneeded to communicate what it wanted and had achieved - there was as much, if not more, productivity in a well-timed press release as in a grant. More research was needed. lA voice in the audience: What about publishing what you've already got?) Page 4
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