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Of some 30,000 thatched buildings in England, 24,000 are listed according to English Heritage. If you are building a new house you can apply any form of roofing subject to planning, building construction, fire and safety regulations. Value Added Tax is not applied – no subsidy grants are available Your friendly VAT man will take money off you wherever possible, the safest method if 0% rating or a variance of the present 17.5% is stated is to get it confirmed in writing from the VAT office On old property most of these are ‘listed’. A register Is kept by government on property that is considered important enough to require special protection. This need not be age but importance of the property or a previous owners status (e.g. Admiral Nelsons house) Grade one listing are items like Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament and the best of the British great houses. Any work done on these is very strictly controlled and can be heavily subsidised by the government. (The Department of The Environment) http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/ (English Heritage) basically is a branch of The Department of The Environment responsible for the administration of listed building regulations. For most thatched property a local council official (Conservation Officer) is responsible Grade 2 star are the next layer, few thatched roof’s fall into this category, the controls are very strict, grants are available but are small Grade two protection applies to most thatch property pre circa 1800, grants are available up to 12½% of the cost but a maximum grant of £1,200 applies. Full VAT is payable @ 17 ½ % (some 750,000 properties of all types in all) This seems to vary dependant on the area and whim of the council. More importantly the owner of the property is not allowed to change the type of roofing, not even from straw to water reed. This can be overturned but is very rare. Even changes from a flush to ornamental ridge may be examined by the 'style police' Whilst the new owner cannot be prosecuted for the previous unauthorised work, they can be forced to reinstate them. For example a previous owner may have re roofed with Norfolk reed. The new owner could then be forced to reinstate the original long straw. There is no time limit to how far they can go back! In a sentence most house owners have to maintain his thatch to an arbitrary, frequently cosmetic style at his own expense! I am a great believer in conservation, I even sympathise with the aim of most conservation officialdom but not the arrogant 'style police' that some still are or are made to be, book learning is great I don't know my Greek columns from my early Victorian Hysterical. I just wish that the regulating authority understood a little more about thatch and its history and strongly feel that sensible grants should be made available for the maintenance of listed buildings - after all the regulations exist to prevent the destruction of our history for the benefit of all, therefore all should help pay for it. Our regulations may even be illegal under European Law, Northern Ireland get a 75% grant. http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/built/buildings/grants.shtml A very simplified outline of the extremely complicated system, exceptions can and do occur at all levels. Make sure that you are able to legally undertake the work and get permission before starting. You may also be liable to the above even if not listed if you live in a conservation area. The owner and the contractor will be held liable for the reinstatement of any work carried out without permission
A Thatchers View Thatched roof’s have, it has been seen by some owners to be singled out for discrimination by the implementation of the ’like for like’ thatching policy usually meaning precluding the use of any other materials but long straw with the specification that long straw be thrashed (in a thrashing drum) and applied so that the cut ends and ears are randomly distributed. The historical evidence for this practice can clearly be seen to be unsound in that the thrashing drum was not in use until the 1850’s and then onwards until the introduction of the combine harvester. For hundreds of years prior to this sickle cutting of the ears only and the pulling out by the roots of the straw and thatching with the roots up was commonplace, Later scythe cut materials were tied into sheaf's and flailed retaining the straw in an ears and butt aligned condition (combed wheat emulates this) It has to be remembered that thatch was historically the cheapest and least long lived roofing material, with any ‘suitable’ material being used, long stemmed vegetable material being employed with frequently a very short roof life of 3-10 years. This was not acceptable to home owners in the 20th century and indeed many are not available today. Water reed was and is indisputably the most long lasting thatching material; this was not a waste product but had to be cut especially for roofing. This disadvantage being mitigated by the cutting period falling in the worst months of the year when the lack of other agricultural work released labour for the task. Until modern drainage methods were used reeds and sedges were commonly available everywhere. There are it is felt to be arguments for all of the three thatching materials, long straw, combed wheat reed, and water reed to be considered as one and the same. Method of application are of of more importance. The skill and method used by an accomplished thatcher can make any roof impossible to distinguish visually the material that has been used. Even water reed although traditionally identifiable by its more severe lines, in the hands of an expert can follow the flowing lines and retain the ‘poured on’ effect. Reed can indeed be thatched over existing historic layers of thatch. In most cases the 'poured on' effect is not a style but came from the practice of thatchers not removing as much of the old thatch as they should have done for practical reasons. Some of the conflicts seen today arise from the perception by a few thatchers that the loss of straw to reed with a life of up to three times more reduces the amount of work available in the future, the home owner sees a differential cost of 25 years for long straw, 40 years for combed wheat, 50 years for water reed at approximately the same price. The conservation officer has the unenviable task of having to define the material to be used without the benefit of any in depth knowledge of techniques or the vast variation within all the materials. For example flax was extensively used in living memory. Are we now to try and guess the material used at the original property construction date, fix a date and fit the local crops and threshing techniques to it, or as at present blanket fit a material and technique to the 19th century. Wire netting for instance has the most intrusive visual impact, it is practical but has obviously little history, crofters used old fishing nets held with rope and stones to protect against gales. It would diversify and be more historically 'correct' to have a much more unkempt looking thatching style using perhaps wood shavings and bracken as was used in the past, in particular on some of the beloved chocolate box examples probably did. There is good evidence for this approach in some of our great landscape artists work (Constable Cottage in a Cornfield) as one example, far from it being considered impossible to discern style and material from the past it is available in profusion. Thatch with its relatively short life span has always reflected the agricultural life and economy around it and of course transport. Should we now be considering oil seed rape? As a thatcher of 40 years and living under a thatch for 50 in an ideal world should I expect the state who insists on the material being historically correct pays me as an owner the extra costs for insisting on a material that never existed when my 17 century house was built! This is not an attack on long straw, it is suburb material requiring the highest skills, it is more a comment on the insistence without recompense on using a relatively modern material. M y own house was not listed when I bought it, It had tin sheet over the old flax and straw thatch, I renovated it - I hope sympathetically and thatched with reed, it was then listed. I expect that when re thatching is required the owner will be forced to, as the current law stands to replace the tin or thatch in long straw.
The Official View On Listing
The purpose of
listing Listing is the start of a process, rather than an end in itself, flagging the significance of an asset so that its future management can enhance its contribution to local, regional and national life. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (referred to below as the Secretary of State) is responsible for compiling the statutory list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest. English Heritage is responsible for providing expert advice on which buildings meet the criteria for listing, and for administering the process.
Making an
application for listing Heritage
Protection Operations Department The application should be supported by as much information as possible, including:
The more information that is supplied, the quicker a listing application can be dealt with.
The listing
process English Heritage will assess the building against the criteria published in Planning Policy Guidance 15: Planning and the Historic Environment. Before a full assessment is made, the owner and local authority will be informed that listing is being considered (unless the building is considered to be under immediate threat), and asked for comments. If there is any doubt about the significance of the building, English Heritage may undertake historical and documentary research, and make comparisons with other examples of the same building type. In most cases an inspection will be undertaken, although this is not always necessary. Where English Heritage consider that an inspection is desirable, the owner's permission will be sought. When the assessment is complete and any comments from the owner and local authority considered, the recommendation will be forwarded to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Before taking a decision the Secretary of State may seek advice from others who she considers have special knowledge or interest in historic buildings. After the Secretary of State has come to a decision, the owner, applicant and local authority will be notified, and sent a letter detailing the reasons for the decision.
Reviews of
listing decisions Aside from this review process, decisions about whether or not to list or de-list a building are not usually revisited unless there is significant new evidence about the special architectural or historic interest of a building, or a material change of circumstances affecting the assessment of its architectural or historic interest.
Removing a
building from the statutory list Applications for de-listing will not generally be considered if the building is currently the subject of an application for listed building consent, or an appeal against refusal of consent, or if action by a local planning authority is in hand. This is because both listed building consent and enforcement appeal procedures give appellants the right to argue that a building is not of special interest and should be removed from the list. Where this process is already underway, the issue of de-listing is more properly addressed in this way. Applications for de-listing should be made to English Heritage in the same way as listing applications.
Building
Preservation Notices A BPN provides protection to a building in that, for a period of six months after service of the BPN, it is subject to the same rules as if it were in fact listed, allowing time for a formal assessment to be carried out. The planning authority generally serves a BPN on the owner of the building and then notifies the Secretary of State, requesting that the building be considered for listing. The Secretary of State must decide within six months whether to list the building. If it is not listed, compensation may be payable if loss has been sustained as a result of the BPN.
Certificates of
Immunity Applications for COIs should be sent directly to DCMS.
Future changes
to the heritage protection system
These changes are the first stage of the Government's wider proposals for reform of the heritage protection system. More information on these reforms can be found in "Review of heritage protection: the way forward" - the DCMS decision report published in June 2004.
Contacts Contact the Architecture and Historic Environment Division listing team at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport at listing@culture.gsi.gov.uk. |
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