Rob Bourn, founder and managing director of Orion Heritage, discusses HER and how it affects developments
If you have commissioned archaeological or heritage work recently, you may have noticed one particular cost creeping upwards: the cost of Historic Environment Record (HER) searches. In parts of the country, these charges have risen sharply, and they can vary far more than most clients expect.
Two questions come up again and again. Why are these searches needed at all? And why does the cost swing so wildly from one site to the next? Both are fair questions.
Both deserve a proper answer, because (rising bills aside), the HER is still one of the most valuable tools we have for keeping a development scheme moving and a budget intact.
HER is far more than a planning requirement
Historic Environment Records are databases maintained by local authorities. They hold information on archaeological sites, historic buildings, landscapes, previous investigations and other heritage assets. They are also a living record of local history, capturing everything from prehistoric finds to post-industrial remains that tell a place’s story over time.
A common assumption is that an HER simply lists the designated assets – the listed buildings and scheduled monuments you could look up yourself. In reality, it holds far more: previous excavations, geophysical surveys, cropmarks, industrial archaeology, historic landscape features and thousands of records you will not find gathered anywhere else.
For us, it is almost always the starting point. Before we assess a site’s archaeological potential, prepare a Heritage Statement or work out how best to approach a planning authority, we need to understand what is already known. The HER provides that evidence base. Get it right early, and you avoid the expensive surprises that surface later in the planning process – the kind that can stall a programme or upend a carefully planned budget.
Without HERs, heritage professionals, planning authorities and developers alike would be making decisions with a far poorer picture of the historic environment. Heritage advice is only ever as good as the information behind it. That is precisely why independent, evidence-led advice depends on these records – and why we treat them as fundamental, not as a box to tick.
Rising costs are frustrating, but not surprising
Every HER service charges commercial users for access to its data, and rightly so. Maintaining a record takes specialist staff, data management systems, ongoing research and continual updates. These are not static archives; they are working resources that need sustained investment to stay useful.
Like much of local government, historic environment services are operating under real financial pressure. Against that backdrop, rising charges are no surprise. Given the value HERs bring to planning, archaeology, conservation and public understanding of local history, it is entirely reasonable that accessing that information for commercial projects should carry a cost.
Why HERs are hard to budget and plan for
The problem is not just that HER charges are rising, but that they are not always charged consistently. HERs work to shared data standards, and many use the same recording software, so records are broadly comparable in structure; what varies is the depth of recording, with some capturing the archaeology in more detail than others. This can mean costs, turnaround times, and search methodologies differ from one authority to the next, which can make a scheme harder to budget for precisely.
Sites near an administrative boundary face a further problem. Because records are held authority by authority, a single development scheme can require separate searches from two or three different HERs, each charging its own fee.
Some HERs deliver comprehensive datasets quickly and efficiently. Others, working with limited resources, inevitably struggle to match that. For a developer trying to budget and programme a scheme, the result can feel fragmented, despite the increasingly important role these records play.
As consultants, we have little choice but to pass these costs on – access to HER data is fundamental to robust archaeological and heritage advice. What we can do is help clients anticipate them, scope them proportionately and avoid paying for searches a scheme does not need. Greater consistency across the system would make life easier for clients, consultants and planning authorities alike.
HERs are taking on a bigger role
The timing of these cost increases is telling, because Historic Environment Records are moving toward the centre of the planning system rather than the edge.
The Government’s proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework place greater weight on HERs and the evidence they provide, alongside higher expectations of the quality of heritage assessments. In short, the evidence base – and the advice built upon it – is set to carry more influence over planning outcomes, not less.
If policy is going to lean harder on HER data, there is an equally strong argument that HER services themselves must be properly resourced and supported to deliver it.
A vital service that deserves support
Good heritage advice depends on good information. Rising costs may be an unavoidable consequence of the pressures facing local government – but if HERs are expected to play an ever more important role in planning, there is a clear case for greater consistency, investment and long-term support.
It is worth being clear about the scale of that investment. Over the past year, the HER searches we carried out on behalf of clients came to around £34,000. That is close to the full cost of employing an HER officer for a year, once salary, National Insurance and pension are counted – and that is one consultancy. Across the sector, the development industry already substantially funds the records the planning system depends on. The question worth asking is whether that investment is working as hard as it could – for the developers paying it, and for the records themselves.
These are resources the whole system relies on. Keeping them sustainable, accessible and proportionate is in everyone’s interest – developers, consultants and the public alike. In the meantime, our job is to make sure clients get the full value of what these records offer, without paying a penny more than a scheme requires.
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