Ever since the 1990s our industry has been responsible for most of the UK’s archaeological discoveries. Archaeology is an important part of the planning process and the Institute for Archaeologists estimate development accounts for something in the region of £120m to £150m per year in investment in archaeology.

Although some archaeologists had been working with the construction industry for many decades, the first voluntary code was created by the British Property Federation in the 1980s. In 1990 PPG 16 (through the National Policy Framework NPPF2012) linked archaeological work to planning permission, recognising the value of our heritage and requiring planning applications to consider how our heritage might be preserved, understood and enhanced in order to create “desirable and sustainable places”.

We can’t say it’s our industry that’s pushed this forward; after all this adds cost to the process and we tend to stray away from increasing our customers costs when we can gelp it. Rather, it’s the wish of people to live and work in historical settings, and to understand those buildings within their cultural and historical settings that has driven forward the requirements for archaeology to be considered in the planning process.

Developers tend to worry the most about the possibility of major discoveries, so it’s important to understand the rules archaeologists apply to development projects. These tend to be:

1.  Get as much information early
2.  Asses what is most significant
3.  Understand commercial interests
4.  Reach out to the public

By understanding the above we can understand what they're looking for and how we can get from our archaeological partners what we need. 

Archaeology might seem a bit like a pain to many contractors (if you're used to dealing with them you may have a different perspective), but developer can turn this to their advantage. Archaeology gets a huge amount of interest from the public and if you work closely with the archaeologists you can benefit from PR and other communications surrounding the dig and any subsequent investigations. This can really help to root a company within a community, something that could be important if a project is going to last a while and where the good will of the community is likely to be necessary.

 

Ultimately, understanding the background of the site you're developing allows the developer to sell the story of the site, which will enevitably increase the value proposition of the properties and enable all stakeholders to benefit from the investment made in understanding the archeology of the site.