Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to safeguard the UK's industrial heritage.

The UK’s industrial heritage is a vital part of our nation's rich history and cultural life, and His Majesty’s Government has taken a number of steps to safeguard and promote our industrial heritage across the UK, including in the North East of England.

HM Government is committed to safeguarding our nation’s built heritage. The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 includes protection for iconic assets of industrial and engineering accomplishment, including the Grade I listed High Level Bridge, the Grade II* listed Tyne Bridge, and the Grade II* listed Swing Bridge, which is also a Scheduled Monument.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested more than £610 million in industrial, maritime and transport heritage projects across the UK since 1994, including £40 million in the North East.

In 2019, DCMS invested £18.6 million in the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ project through the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. This involves a major capital transformation of the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion Museum in Shildon, County Durham, which will help to celebrate the North East's unique relationship with heritage rail.

HM Government is also investing £95 million across 65 High Street Heritage Action Zones to revitalise high streets and connect people with their local heritage. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone is a brilliant example, restoring 26 miles of historic railway, and developing a major industrial heritage attraction, in the run-up to the bicentenary of the first public steam rail journey between Stockton and Darlington in 1825.

Repairs Grants for Heritage at Risk, managed by Historic England, have restored a number of industrial heritage sites across the North East, including £250,000 towards the restoration of a Grade II* railway goods shed in Darlington, thought to be the oldest surviving one in the UK.

Beyond the North East, DCMS has invested in the restoration of other industrial heritage assets. In Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, Historic England is working with developers to revitalise old textile mills, transforming them into new homes, commercial spaces, and cultural hubs. Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund have helped to reopen Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings – the first iron-framed building in the world – as a new workspace and community asset, with its conservation providing work placements, training and hands-on experience in heritage preservation and construction skills.

DCMS is working more broadly to promote the UK’s industrial heritage. Our sponsored museums and arm’s-length bodies are playing a key role in engaging young people with our industrial cultural heritage, and encouraging them into STEM pathways. This includes the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inspiring future engineers with its focus on how Britain’s industrial heritage changed the world. This is supported by the work of the four other Science Museum sites and the Natural History Museum.

Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme supports primary and secondary schools to engage children with their local industrial heritage and to consider possible future career paths.

DCMS, in partnership with DfE, is developing the Cultural Education Plan, which will aim to support career progression pathways, and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcomes for children and young people within the cultural and creative sectors. This includes improving engagement in our heritage sectors and industrial heritage.

Industrial heritage is also fundamental for tourism and our local visitor economy, especially in the North East. The Government is currently developing the Destination Development Partnership, which includes working with partners across the North East to improve the region's visitor economy.