We are at a turning point for heritage skills – and action is needed now

The latest commitment has arrived at a critical moment. The government has also dedicated £1.5bn to cultural sector investment, including £230m specifically for heritage protection through initiatives like the Places of Worship Renewal Fund and support for at-risk heritage buildings. This represents a significant opportunity to restore and preserve our historic fabric, but it raises an urgent question: who will do this work?

Investment in buildings means little without investment in people. We have a real lack of new people coming into the industry. The skills gap must be urgently bridged if we are to make the most of this funding. Every pound invested in preserving a historic church or community building requires skilled hands to turn that investment into lasting conservation. This is why the £725m commitment to apprenticeships and the removal of the five-percent levy for under-25s creates such vital conditions for heritage businesses to invest in the next generation.

Reversing missed opportunities

The challenge now is changing perceptions. Our education system has created a cultural bias towards academic routes, leaving vocational careers significantly undervalued. I speak with teachers and careers advisors who simply do not have heritage trades on their radar. Young people leave school unaware that a career in roofing restoration, stonemasonry or decorative plasterwork even exists, let alone that these professions offer genuine fulfilment, excellent earning potential and the opportunity to work on buildings that will be admired for centuries.

This lack of awareness is causing a huge skills gap. Nearly a million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in work or learning. Many could find purpose and pride in heritage crafts, and we urgently need those resources in the sector. We need teachers and parents to recognise what can be achieved through a vocational career and to champion these opportunities.

However, we must also ensure traditional building crafts are properly represented with available and relevant apprenticeship standards and providers. Current representation is fairly limited. Take stonemasonry as an example: there are only four dedicated courses at diploma level two available on the scheme in the UK.

For a craft that takes a decade to master and is essential for maintaining everything from parish churches to palaces, this is simply not enough. And it means many talented young people have no local route into the profession. We need to see heritage crafts given equal priority in the apprenticeship framework if this expansion is to truly benefit our sector.

We can’t afford to wait

The need for immediate action cannot be overstated. Training for these careers takes substantial time. A master stonemason requires ten years of experience. We cannot afford to wait another decade to start building this pipeline of talent. Nor can we rely on government funding alone to solve this crisis.

This is why at DBR we have invested in our own craft skills centre in the South Downs, specifically to inspire and educate young people. There we offer continuing professional development seminars on heritage conservation techniques as well as school taster days to give young people hands-on experience of what these careers involve.

Our current projects demonstrate exactly why these skills are so critical. At Liberty London, we completed a multi-million-pound restoration of the iconic Grade II* listed Tudor Revival building, overhauling over 1,500 leaded light windows and undertaking meticulous conservation of the Mayflower weathervane. At Blenheim Palace, our teams are working on comprehensive roof conservation and masonry restoration, requiring specialists in multiple traditional crafts.

At 13–15 Old Square within The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, we delivered a roof restoration that respected the building’s historic character while ensuring long-term protection. We removed frost-damaged Westmoreland slates and installed 38 tonnes of new slate in diminishing courses. Bespoke ridge tiles were crafted to complement the architecture, while new milled lead was installed to parapet gutters, dormers, crown roofs and flashings following timber repairs, safeguarding this important legal setting.

Each of these projects relies on craftspeople with years of training and experience. Without a new generation coming through, this work simply cannot continue.

This must be the turning point

We need parents, educators and the industry to step up now with quality training and recognise the value of these careers. Without urgent action, we risk losing centuries of irreplaceable knowledge, as expert craftspeople retire. This must be the turning point.

The future of this industry depends entirely on the people we train today. The government has created an opportunity with this apprenticeship expansion. Together all of us, parents, educators, businesses and policymakers, ensure heritage crafts receive their fair share of that investment.

The buildings we save will stand for generations. The skills to care for them need to endure just as long.