A University of Lancashire Project
Public Value in the Regional Visitor Economy
Assessing Lancashire's Cultural Heritage
Project Rationale & Background
Introduction
Lancashire’s cultural heritage - its historic sites, traditions, and creative assets - plays a vital role in shaping the county’s identity and attractiveness as a destination. Understanding its contribution to public value ensures that investment decisions support not only economic growth but also social inclusion, community wellbeing, and cultural sustainability. Tourism and culture are at the heart of Lancashire’s economic future. They’re not just regional priorities - they’re seen as national-level drivers of growth. The Lancashire Growth Plan 2025 focuses on five sectorial areas of growth, including Culture and Tourism. With strategic enablers such as infrastructure and place transformation, business growth and enterprise, wellbeing and inclusive communities, and data and evidence; together, these will grow Lancashire’s creative industries and visitor economy. In 2023, Lancashire welcomed 67 million visitors, generating £5.4 billion for the economy. Cultural tourism and heritage are already major economic engines, and the Lancashire Growth Plan (and Lancashire’s [Re]Made Cultural Strategy) aims to build on that success. The goal is clear: make Lancashire a competitive, diverse, and thriving region on the national stage in terms of showcasing its cultural heritage within a year-round, high-value visitor economy.
Rationale
The Lancashire Growth Plan currently lacks detail how cultural heritage is measured and valued beyond economic returns. A public value assessment framework would address this gap, drawing on established public value assessments at the University of Lancashire. Successful implementation of the Growth Plan will need to answer these questions: - What is cultural heritage within Lancashire? - What is heritage for? - What kinds of heritages are they? - Whom does heritage serve? - How does heritage aid community wellbeing? - What is the public value of such culture and heritage? - And, to what extent do local people value heritage? To address these fundamental questions, this report focuses on societal impacts of culture and heritage. It is about improving regional society, with a better understanding of heritage relationships that enable stronger communities, cultural enrichment, as well as economic opportunities. This resident-led / community-focussed research is about how local people view and value ‘Lancashire culture’. Importantly, this report will focus on how residents feel and participate in heritage(s), particularly in terms of well-being, quality of life, and sense of identity. In essence, if residents value heritage assets, then responsible and sustainable cultural tourism can grow in a positive societal context for local community perceptions and engagement.
Aims & Objectives
The aim of this report is to assess how Lancashire’s cultural heritage contributes to the creation of public value within the regional visitor economy. Objective 1 : Understanding Regional Cultural Heritage What forms of heritage are most significant to communities in Lancashire, and how do different groups interpret and engage with these cultural assets? Objective 2 : Assess Public Value and Community Benefits Which aspects of Lancashire’s cultural heritage deliver the greatest public value—particularly in terms of wellbeing, identity, pride of place, and cultural participation—and what barriers limit access or engagement? Objective 3: Informing Place-Based Investment How can a public value framework be applied to Lancashire heritage settings to identify strengths, gaps, and inequalities, and guide targeted investment and partnership opportunities? This report will offer Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) with a public values-based evidence framework (PVF) for cultural heritage—a model that can be scaled across the county and applied to the wider visitor economy. This report will embed strategic policy enablers within an evidence-based decision-making framework, ensuring that cultural and tourism investments are guided by robust public value data and community insights. This approach directly supports the Lancashire Growth Plan 2025 by strengthening its core enablers—place transformation, inclusive communities, and data-driven policy—while delivering measurable outcomes for economic growth, wellbeing, and cultural sustainability. This resident focussed research will combine a targeted online survey with further exploratory qualitative work (including semi-structure interviews) to ascertain robust and relevant insights. Outcomes will be clear evidence of what, where, how, and why local communities value their heritage landscape and how this value contributes to broader societal impacts of wellbeing, social cohesion, and collective identity (or otherwise). This report aims to guide and augment policy decisions on Lancashire’s cultural heritage protection. It will also give a blueprint for evidence-based strategic decision-making for future investment within cultural tourism. Moreover, the report will offer a transferable framework for use in other areas, including throughout Lancashire and elsewhere.
Report Outline
This report will align with the Lancashire Growth Plan 2025 by outlining the following. 1. Place Transformation - Strengthens local identity and pride of place through heritage-led regeneration and cultural programming. 2. Business Growth and Enterprise - Identifies opportunities for heritage-based tourism and creative industries, supporting local economic diversification. 3. Wellbeing and Inclusive Communities - Measures how cultural heritage contributes to quality of life, social inclusion, and community cohesion. 4. Infrastructure and Connectivity - Provides evidence to guide investment in heritage sites and cultural venues as part of wider infrastructure planning. 5. Data and Evidence - Delivers a robust, public values-based framework (PVF) for decision-making, ensuring policies are grounded in community insights and measurable outcomes. Adopting a PVF within Lancashire, we will achieve our objectives by: Objective 1: Understanding Regional Cultural Heritage - Mapping different and significant regional heritage and cultural assets in terms of plurality, importance and dissonance. - Critically assess how and why different local communities interact with, interpret, value and engage with regional heritage and cultural assets. Objective 2: Assess Public Value and Community Benefits - Ascertain which aspects of Lancashire’s cultural heritage offer the best public value, in terms of wellbeing, identity, pride of place, and cultural participation. - Evaluate specific and inherent barriers that might limit and/or prevent access, engagement or value to/from cultural heritage assets. Objective 3: Informing Place-Based Investment - Within a PVF, identity strengths and gaps, and any inequalities of Lancashire’s cultural heritage assets. - Offer defined recommendations that provide evidence-based investment and partnership opportunities for the adoption and protection of cultural assets within Lancashire’s Growth Plan. - Produce a PVF that can be adapted and applied to other regional cultural tourism offers.
Project Methodology
The study was based on an online public survey examining perceptions of heritage in Lancashire. Based on the 608 valid survey responses, participants were drawn predominantly from across Lancashire, with the strongest representation coming from the Preston (PR), Blackburn/Burnley (BB), and Fylde Coast (FY) postcode areas. The original dataset contained approximately 701 responses, which were screened to remove incomplete submissions and respondents who had never lived in Lancashire. This resulted in a final analytical sample of 608 valid responses. Open-ended questions were optional to encourage participation, resulting in completion rates ranging from 52.6% to 78.3% of respondents. The analysis adopted a predominantly descriptive mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey findings with qualitative thematic analysis of open-text responses. Quantitative data were analysed using frequency counts and valid percentages to identify patterns in heritage values, access, wellbeing, cultural importance, and preferred heritage categories. Open responses were coded into themes to explore respondents’ experiences, perceptions, and priorities in greater depth. To examine relationships between variables, selected statistical tests were employed. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to assess associations between ordinal variables such as heritage value, visit frequency, access, wellbeing, and quality of life. Cross-tabulation, chi-square tests, and phi coefficients were applied to explore associations between respondents’ locations and their favourite heritage examples. These analyses were used to identify patterns and relationships rather than establish causal links. The interpretation of public value findings was informed by Schwartz’s (2012) Theory of Basic Values, which provided a light conceptual framework for understanding how heritage contributes to identity, enjoyment, stewardship, belonging, and pride of place. The framework was used as an interpretive aid rather than as a formal psychometric measure. Overall, the methodology combined statistical analysis with thematic interpretation to provide a comprehensive assessment of the public value of heritage in Lancashire. The survey is therefore best described as a Lancashire resident survey, with particularly strong representation from Central Lancashire (Preston/PR area), East Lancashire (BB area), and the Fylde Coast (FY area). Together, these three areas accounted for 82.7% of all responses. The findings should be interpreted as reflecting primarily the views of long-term Lancashire residents, rather than visitors or newcomers, which helps explain the strong emphasis on local identity, family history, place attachment, and heritage pride found throughout the survey.
Towards a Public Value Framework (PVF)
Public value refers to the value that public institutions create for society - going beyond narrow measures such as efficiency or cost‑effectiveness. It addresses the question: “What should (local) government produce that is genuinely valuable to the public?
In this report, public value is interpreted as something created through lived experience, especially through everyday engagement with shared cultural environments like landscapes, physical places, as well as intangible heritage.
Core Principles of Public Value
Outcomes, not outputs. Public value focuses on social outcomes (e.g., safety, wellbeing, trust) rather than simply the volume of services delivered.
Legitimacy and democratic consent. Public value requires that a policy or service has:
- Legal authority;
- Democratic legitimacy;
- Public trust and acceptance.
This means that what counts as ‘value’ is not determined only by experts, it must also reflect what the public considers meaningful.
Operational capacity. Public value is feasible only if the organisation has the resources, skills, partnerships, and institutional capacity to deliver. This includes working with:
- Other public bodies;
- Communities;
- Private and voluntary sectors;
- Technology and data systems.
Why Public Value Matters?
Moves beyond New Public Management. Instead of treating citizens as customers, public value:
- Recognises the complexity of social problems;
- Focuses on collaboration, not competition;
- Frames government as a creator of collective goods (e.g., trust, cohesion, fairness).
Provides a more holistic evaluation framework. Public value allows policymakers to consider:
- Social equity;
- Long‑term wellbeing;
- Trust in institutions;
- Democratic engagement;
- Environmental sustainability.
- This broadens decision‑making beyond cost–benefit alone.
Encourages co‑creation and citizen engagement. Citizens are partners, not passive recipients. Public value is strengthened when policymaking involves:
- Participation;
- Deliberation;
- Co‑design;
- Shared responsibility for outcomes.
Public Value as Lived, Experiential, and Contextual
This report suggests public value arises in the relationship between individuals and the public sphere. It is:
- Subjective (formed through personal perceptions, emotions, and experiences);
- Context-dependent (emerging from encounters in specific settings);
- Relational (based on how environments meet basic human needs and values).
This contrasts with alternative viewpoints that view public value as something produced mainly by public services or institutions.
Public Value and a Sense of Belonging
This report argues that public value arises when shared heritage spaces and places contribute to:
- Psychological needs;
- Positive emotional experiences;
- A sense of meaning, belonging, or security.
Access as a Dimension of Public Value
A major contribution of the PVF is access itself is a form of public value. Rather than treating access only as a prerequisite for value, this report reframes it as:
- An intrinsic public value dimension;
- A measure of inclusion and spatial justice;
- A determinant of who can experience value and under what conditions.
Public Value as Relational, Not Primarily Civic-Duty-Based
Public value here is:
- Leisure-based;
- Nature-based;
- Culturally based;
- Emotionally grounded;
- Often individual or household-level.
Rather than overtly civic or duty oriented, public value is created through restoration, enjoyment, freedom, and connection more than through collective responsibility or obligation.
Summary: Public Value Framework
Public value offers a framework for policy that:
- Prioritises meaningful social outcomes;
- Requires democratic legitimacy;
- Depends on operational capacity and collaboration.
This report emphasises value for the public (outcomes), value with the public (engagement), and value from public institutions (trust, legitimacy).
Cultural Heritage in Lancashire:
An Overview
What is heritage for?
Heritage serves as a strategic resource for society, offering cultural, social, and economic value that supports long‑term public goals. It provides continuity, helping communities understand shared identities, histories, and values, which strengthens social cohesion and civic engagement. Heritage assets across Lancashire, whether historic buildings, cultural landscapes, or intangible traditions, also contribute to regional place‑making, creating distinctive environments that attract residents, businesses, and visitors.
In policy terms, heritage can drive regeneration by stimulating investment, supporting creative industries, and enhancing the quality of life. It also underpins sustainable development: conserving existing assets reduces carbon emissions associated with demolition and new construction, while reinforcing local resilience.
Importantly, heritage fosters education and public understanding, offering spaces and narratives through which people can engage critically with the past. For policymakers, heritage is not only about protection but about purposeful use—leveraging cultural resources to support inclusive growth, community wellbeing, and sustainable futures.
Who does heritage serve?
Heritage serves multiple publics, and effective policy must recognise this diversity across Lancashire. At its core, heritage benefits local communities by strengthening identity, belonging, and social cohesion through shared stories and places. It also serves wider national audiences by preserving cultural memory, supporting education, and enabling people to engage critically with the past.
For visitors and tourists, heritage provides meaningful experiences that contribute to regional economies and place distinctiveness. Creative industries, researchers, and educators rely on heritage as a foundation for innovation, scholarship, and public learning. However, heritage must also serve future generations by safeguarding cultural and environmental assets in ways that promote sustainability and resilience. Importantly, heritage should serve groups historically marginalised or under‑represented within dominant narratives, ensuring inclusive access, participation, and decision‑making.
For policymakers, heritage therefore functions as a shared public resource, one that must balance economic, social, and cultural interests while promoting equity and long‑term public value.
What kinds of heritages are they?
Heritage encompasses a broad spectrum of cultural, natural, tangible, and intangible assets that together shape collective identity and public value. Tangible heritage includes historic buildings, monuments, landscapes, archives, and artefacts. In short, physical resources that embody memory and identity. Intangible heritage covers traditions, languages, craft skills, music, and community practices that sustain cultural continuity.
Natural heritage, such as protected landscapes, biodiversity sites, and geologically significant areas, links environmental stewardship with cultural meaning. Increasingly, digital heritage is important, from digitised collections to born‑digital cultural expressions, as essential for future access and innovation.
Diverse forms of heritage, including industrial, rural, minority, diasporic, and contested, highlight the multiplicity of narratives within society. Effective policy must therefore acknowledge a plural heritage ecosystem, ensuring that protection and investment recognise both well‑established assets and under‑represented histories. This diversity strengthens social inclusion, supports place‑making, and broadens the public benefits heritage can deliver across communities and generations.
How does heritage aid community wellbeing?
Heritage plays a strategic role in supporting community wellbeing and should be recognised by as an essential component of social infrastructure. Evidence shows that access to historic places improves mental health, offering people a sense of stability, continuity, and emotional grounding. A 2026 report by Historic England and the University of Glasgow found that heritage sites provide the permanence and security people need to function and thrive, and that both living near heritage assets and visiting them significantly improve mental health outcomes.
Heritage also enhances social wellbeing. Research from the Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme highlights that engagement with heritage strengthens belonging, pride of place, social relationships, and collective empowerment, all of which contribute to cohesive and resilient communities. Heritage volunteering and participatory projects further support social connection, boost confidence, and reduce loneliness, especially among vulnerable groups.
From a policy perspective, heritage contributes to wellbeing not only through emotional and social benefits but also by providing high‑quality environments that improve quality of life. Historic landscapes, parks, and public spaces encourage active lifestyles and outdoor participation, supporting both physical and mental health. These environments also reinforce local identity, helping communities feel rooted and valued.
Overall, the evidence demonstrates that heritage is a cost‑effective lever for improving public wellbeing. Integrating heritage into health, planning, and community development strategies, supported by sustainable funding and inclusive access, will ensure that its social benefits are more evenly distributed and should be embedded within long‑term wellbeing policy frameworks.
What is cultural heritage within Lancashire?
A Rich and Varied Historic Environment: Lancashire’s cultural heritage is anchored in an extensive historic environment that spans rural, urban, industrial, and coastal landscapes. The county contains 5,437 nationally listed buildings and sites, including 5,269 listed buildings, 136 scheduled monuments, and 32 registered parks and gardens, reflecting a spectrum of architectural periods, land uses, and cultural histories. Among these are iconic sites such as Lancaster Castle, with its 11th‑century origins, Clitheroe Castle, and historic halls including Samlesbury Hall, Towneley Hall, Rufford Old Hall, and Lytham Hall, each contributing to Lancashire’s cultural narrative through their roles in governance, religion, trade, and domestic life.
Historic parks, such as Avenham Park, Miller Park, and Moor Park, designed by Edward Milner in the mid‑19th century, are themselves heritage assets that provide aesthetic, ecological, and recreational value while serving as essential public spaces for health and wellbeing.
These varied assets collectively reflect the layers of Lancashire’s development: from medieval governance and ecclesiastical power to industrial innovation, rural traditions, and civic pride. They form the physical backbone of the county’s cultural identity.
Museums, Libraries, Archives, and Cultural Institutions: Lancashire’s cultural heritage extends beyond buildings to the institutions that curate, interpret, and democratise access to history. Lancashire has a county‑wide network of libraries, museums, archives, music centres, outdoor education, and heritage learning services all helping foster cultural engagement, equity, and wellbeing. These institutions contribute make culture accessible and integrating heritage into education, community development, and digital participation.
This infrastructure ensures that heritage is not static but continually reinterpreted, offering residents opportunities to learn, create, and participate in cultural life.
Industrial, Working‑Class, and Everyday Heritage: Lancashire’s heritage is profoundly shaped by its industrial legacy. Textile mills, weaving sheds, engineering works, and transport infrastructure form an essential narrative of working‑class life and global economic transformation. Sites such as historic mills in the Ribble Valley and Fylde, and the industrial heritage documented through local archives and museums, symbolise Lancashire’s role in the Industrial Revolution.
Heritage in Lancashire also includes the everyday elements, including Victorian terraces, market towns, pubs, cinemas, village halls, memorials. All contribute to the character and social memory of communities. The Lancashire Local List initiative supports the recognition of locally significant heritage assets that may not meet national listing criteria but are vital for community identity and planning decisions. These include agricultural buildings, commercial structures, cultural venues, recreational spaces, and transport infrastructure that anchor local distinctiveness and continuity.
This broadened approach aligns with contemporary heritage policy, which values diverse histories, inclusive representation, and community‑led identification of meaningful heritage.
Coastal, Rural, and Natural Heritage: Lancashire’s coast, from Blackpool’s celebrated entertainment heritage to the more tranquil landscapes of Morecambe Bay, embody cultural and social histories of leisure, migration, and maritime activity. Inland, rural heritage is expressed in traditional farming landscapes, stone barns, hedgerows, ancient woodlands, and historic villages that contribute to local identity and support biodiversity, wellbeing, and rural economies.
Natural heritage and cultural heritage intersect strongly in Lancashire. Historic parks, landscape gardens, and countryside pathways encourage outdoor activity, social participation, and environmental stewardship, reinforcing their value within public health strategies and community resilience planning.
Culture, Creativity, and Contemporary Heritage Practices: Cultural heritage in Lancashire includes living cultural practices and creative activity. The county’s theatres, galleries, festivals, stately homes, and community arts programmes form a dynamic cultural ecosystem celebrated by Visit Lancashire. These spaces host exhibitions, performances, and events that explore both historical and contemporary identities, positioning Lancashire as a unique destination for culture, arts and heritage.
Initiatives such as The Spark! West Lancashire Culture, Heritage and Arts Strategy reflect a strategic shift toward participatory cultural policy. This programme emphasises celebrating cultural identity, supporting creative industries, and enhancing community wellbeing through inclusive engagement and co‑production, ensuring cultural heritage supports civic pride and local regeneration.
Community‑Focused and People‑Centred Heritage: Lancashire’s cultural heritage is defined not only by its physical assets but by the ways communities use, reinterpret, and benefit from them. The Kirkham Heritage, Health and Wellbeing Programme demonstrates this people‑centred approach. As part of a High Street Heritage Action Zone, the programme integrated heritage with social prescribing and community engagement to address isolation, ageing, and post‑pandemic recovery. By blending storytelling, crafts, food heritage, textiles, and nature, the initiative strengthened community bonds and aligned directly with NHS priorities.
This model illustrates how cultural heritage, when mobilised through collaborative governance, can support social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing.
Heritage as a Strategic Asset for Lancashire’s Future: Understanding cultural heritage within Lancashire requires recognising its role as a strategic cross‑sector resource. Heritage contributes to:
- Place‑making and identity formation across diverse communities;
- Health and wellbeing, including mental health, ageing well, and social cohesion;
- Economic development through tourism, creative industries, and heritage skills;
- Environmental sustainability, using conservation and adaptive reuse to reduce carbon emissions;
- Education and lifelong learning, supporting cultural literacy and skills development.
Cultural heritage therefore underpins key policy agendas, from regeneration and planning to health, education, and environmental strategy.
In summary, cultural heritage within Lancashire represents a diverse, historically rich, and socially significant foundation that shapes the county’s identity, resilience, and future potential. It includes the physical fabric of historic buildings and landscapes, the cultural institutions that preserve collective memory, the creative and community practices that bind people together, and the intangible traditions that give Lancashire its distinctive character. For policymakers, cultural heritage is not simply a legacy of the past; it is a strategic asset that underpins wellbeing, economic vitality, skills development, social cohesion, and place‑making across the county.