RSA tracks which areas are making the most of Heritage Assets 16 Oct 2015

The RSA has launched an ambitious new project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to discover which areas are making the most of heritage assets.  Big Data is an important aspect of the work and the RSA has drawn together over 100 data sets never previously combined.  Jonathan Schifferes of the RSA said that the programme is tracking both traditional heritage such as castles and palaces, the natural world, and intangible heritage including foods associated with a particular area.  Although some obvious London boroughs with high footfall and famous assets score strongly, some prosperous areas including Wokingham and Basingstoke are underpromoting their offer.  By contrast, seaside towns including Southend and Barrow-in-Furness are performing well, despite comparative deprivation.   The top six are the City of London, Kensington & Chelsea, Scarborough, Cambridge, Hastings and Oxford.  Areas which scored highly on the index also reported higher wellbeing – but wellbeing is correlated with making use of heritage through activities rather than the number of heritage assets available.  RSA, HLF