Sustainable management of listed buildings.

What is it about?

This article examines the use of presumptions and duties in what it refers to as ‘sustainable development equations’. More specifically, it asks whether the regulatory regime for managing change in listed buildings is promoting and delivering the sustainable management of listed buildings. It does so by examining how various presumptions and duties are used and prioritized by the courts, by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and local authorities in their policies on managing change and then in practice, in listed building consent decisions relating to solar panels. The paper concludes presumptions and duties are useful tools for ensuring certain factors are brought into sustainable development equations and given the appropriate status. However, in the context of listed buildings, the current balance is not capable of delivering or encouraging their sustainable management. Presumptions and duties are most useful when expressly part of particular regulatory regimes and where the policy that supports these sustainable development equations is sufficiently detailed to provide both regulators and regulated with reassurance and certainty.

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Why is it important?

This article adds to the literature on the role of secondary or balancing duties and presumptions in decision making by critically assessing the influence of general balancing duties contained outside individual regulatory regimes. It examines how these are treated by courts, policy makers and decision makers. It also adds to the literature on how guidance, presumptions and duties can effectively be used to assist those having to make tough choices to deliver a state or organisation's own vision of sustainable development