When Historic England looked to develop a set of monetary values for the everyday heritage sites in their local area using metrics and methods consistent with HM Treasury Green Book evaluation guidance, they commissioned Simetrica-Jacobs to deliver the project.
We designed a state-of-the-art survey of local residents for eight case study sites, to collect economic evaluation data for local heritage assets and contribute to a bank of willingness to pay values for different categories of heritage for use at the local and national level. The study demonstrated that investment in maintaining local heritage sites in good condition has a positive value to society.
The study highlighted Simetrica-Jacobs’ ability to design evaluative research, manage primary data collection, and analyse complex data to produce robust monetary valuation estimates in line with HM Treasury Green Book standards.
The study has had considerable impact both on Historic England’s ongoing investment decisions, as well as on the growing evidence base in Government and the wider sector, providing a set of values that can be transferred to comparable sites throughout the country. These are now used as an off-the-shelf set of values for application in heritage case studies.
