Date published:
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has launched a public consultation to inform a proposed Historic Environment Policy for Northern Ireland. The draft policy sets out a strategic framework to protect, access and use Northern Ireland’s Historic Environment over the next decade.
This is the first ever Historic Environment Policy for Northern Ireland. Recent evidence shows that the condition of our historic environment is declining but this is paired with evidence of the multitude of potential benefits for people and places if that decline can be reversed.
Launching the consultation, Minister Lyons said:
“The draft policy presents us with an opportunity to appreciate and maximise the positive contribution that our historic environment makes to each of us, to our communities and to our wellbeing. We have public assets that are found in every corner of Northern Ireland, a product of a rich and complex history that has made our landscape, villages, towns and cities distinctive. Our historic environment belongs to all of us.
“This policy has been developed in partnership with all our stakeholders. Their honest and informed participation emphasised not only what the historic environment means to people, but that there is a real need to improve the way we are managing this resource.”
The consultation has been developed as part of the Department for Communities’ Heritage, Culture and Creativity (HCC) Programme, established by Minister Lyons in 2024 to provide renewed focus and direction for the arts, museums, public libraries and the historic environment.
The Minister added:
“We have an enormous and untapped resource – listed buildings, monuments, parks and even shipwrecks are found in every urban, rural, coastal natural and underwater place in Northern Ireland. The proposed policy will recognise the importance of protecting, sustaining, and connecting people to their historic environment.”
The consultation invites feedback on the draft vision, the proposed policy aims and a number of emerging issues including skills, outreach and the role of the historic environment in supporting Executive priorities.
The public consultation will run from 14 August 2026 until 23 October 2026.
