Listed Buildings (Hansard, 18 March 1996)

§ Mr. Gwilym Jones

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments under its chief executive, Mr. T. J. Cassidy. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from T. J. Cassidy to Mr. Elfyn Llwyd, dated 18 March 1996The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the current number of listed buildings in Wales and the corresponding figure for 1985. As you will recall from previous correspondence, Cadw is taking forward a national resurvey of historic buildings in Wales which we expect to be completed by 2005. As part of this programme the Agency's target for 1995–96 is that 60 community council areas shall be surveyed and I am pleased to tell you that this has been achieved. The number of buildings listed on 1 January 1985 was:

Grade I: 228
Grade II²: 525
Grade II: 8,935
Churches¹: 714
Total: 10,412

The Corresponding number at 1 January 1996 was:

Grade I: 302
Grade II²: 978
Grade II: 15,975
Churches¹: 604
Total: 17,859

¹Anglican churches in use in Wales were at one time separately graded (A, B or C as appropriate) but this practice has been discontinued. As they arise in our resurvey, ecclesiastical buildings are now regraded on the same basis as secular (I, II² or II) which is why this separate category is diminishing.

I attach a copy of Cadw's recent leaflet "What is Listing?", which I hope you will find helpful and I should be glad to provide any further information you need. I will continue to send you copies of new lists for communities in your constituency when they are published.