The Government has announced plans to split English Heritage into two separate organisations.  A new self-financing charity is to be set up by March 2015 to look after
the National Heritage Collection, which includes properties such as Stonehenge,
Kenwood, Rievaulx Abbey, Kenilworth Castle, Whitby Abbey and Lindisfarne Priory. The charitable status of the new English Heritage will give it the freedom to raise funds in order to undertake a huge programme of conservation work for the properties. English Heritage’s current planning and heritage protection responsibilities will be undertaken by a separate body, currently named the National Heritage Protection Service, but likely to take the name “Historic England”.  However, fears have been expressed in many quarters that the change in status could put the future of the nation’s heritage “in peril” and that the new charity may not have the resources to protect “at risk” sites as it will be difficult to take on properties that do not make money.