Hodge wants stricter listing for 20th-century buildings

Architecture Minister Margaret Hodge wants to make it more difficult for 20th-century buildings to be listed by introducing a two-tier test.

Answering questions in Parliament on 10 December, Hodge suggested that architectural merit alone would not be sufficient grounds for granting listed status to buildings 'built in the last 75 years or so'.

She added : 'We could consider criteria relating to, for instance, whether a building is still fit for purpose, the cost of maintaining it, and the context in which we determine whether to list it.'

Expanding on this at a Heritage Link Day, she said factors such as financial viability and a building's future use would also have to be considered, and added that the 'continuity of purpose of some post-war listings' should be looked at.

The comments have shocked conservationists, in particular the Twentieth Century Society (C20).

Catherine Croft, director at C20 said: 'I felt her comments [at the Heritage Link Day] were increasingly Luddite. She was incredibly dismissive about 20th-century buildings.

'Intellectually it is not the way to go. You get the notion she doesn't like the stuff.

'For example, these [new] considerations were not taken into account when listing Denys Lasdun's 1970s Keeling House in East London in 1993, which the government realised had problems but thought deserved listing on its architectural merit alone – then minister Peter Brooke said that it was only architectural and historic merit that should be taken into account at listing stage.'

Croft said she intends to speak with Hodge and her department in the New Year.

Hodge's views have also put her at loggerheads with English Heritage (EH). In a statement, EH said: '[The current] process successfully manages change in the historic environment and promotes the ongoing life of historic buildings and places… We see no reason to depart from of the current system.'

A government spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: 'This is a personal interest of Margaret Hodge and is not government policy.'