Falling number of historic conservation officers in local authorities.

It probably wont surprise anyone but the number of local government officers working on building conservation and archaeology is falling and is epxected to continue to do so, according to a report published on the Historic Environment Local Management website.

This report shows that historic environment staffing provision in local authorities has continued to decline, both in terms of those who deal with archaeology and, at a slightly higher rate, those who deal with building conservation. In comparison with the rate of loss between 2006 and 2008, the decline in the staffing resource has almost doubled with historic environment staff as a whole being lost to local authorities at an increasing rate.

You can read some of the detail here.