ABSTRACT
All European countries possess a legislative framework to protect their cultural heritage. In each, the built environment is recognized as an important cultural artefact – a framework around which to organize interpretations of social change, economic fortune, key events and personalities in a nation's past and expressions of artistic merit. For these and other reasons the countries, of western Europe at least, follow active policies to conserve the built environment. Yet the process of conservation has many intrinsic tensions, some of which are outlined in other chapters of this volume. In the most affluent areas, conservation is frequently little more than a rearguard action against pressures for redevelopment in defence of – usually local – advantage. In less favoured areas, conservation may be a strategy to enhance an area, capitalize on its individuality and attract inward investment. Responsibility for conservation and, perhaps more importantly, the choice of what to conserve, lie in some instances with national government and in some with local.
