There are around 500,000 buildings, monuments and landscapes that are currently protected under a variety of schemes - including listed buildings, scheduled monuments and conservation areas. The government has now put forward ideas for simplifying and improving the way our heritage is safeguarded.

The plans include:

• Bringing together all the current designations into a single, unified list of historic sites and buildings of England covering all types of historically, archaeologically or architecturally important structures.
• Transferring responsibility for maintaining the list from the Secretary of State to English Heritage.
• Opening up the process requiring owners, local authorities, amenity societies and the public to be informed and consulted when a proposal for listing is made.

"This country has an unrivalled heritage of listed buildings, monuments, parks and gardens, conservation areas and other sites,” said Heritage Minister Andrew McIntosh. "Although the system that is in place is good it needs improvement. There is, for example, too much overlap between different systems, unnecessary complexity and a lack of openness."

Planning Minister Keith Hill, said: “The historic environment makes a vital contribution to the quality of everyone’s life and is central to our sense of local, regional and national identity.”

"At the moment we have an ambitious challenge to build dynamic, sustainable communities across the country - but that's not just about new build alone. We need to make sure we conserve those historic places which give our towns and cities their uniqueness and character."