A report launched by the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) has highlighted the serious skills and knowledge gaps affecting building professionals working in Scotland's built heritage sector.

The Built Heritage Sector Professionals Report, assessed the skills and training of architects, engineers, surveyors, conservation officers and other professionals - the gatekeepers for this sector.

The report showed that many building professionals in Scotland, who specify, commission and oversee this work, have skills and knowledge gaps and this is exacerbated by recruitment difficulties in the professional ranks of the sector, in particular engineers and building control officers in Scotland.

This report follows on from the NHTG's Traditional Building Craft Skills Report published in 2007, which examined the skills and training needs of contractors working on pre-1919 buildings in Scotland.

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There are four World heritage sites in Scotland, as well as Roman remains, ancient dwellings and churches along with nearly 400 historic parks and gardens. In addition there's over 400,000 pre-1919 properties and more than 47,000 listed buildings, all of which could be at risk due to the skills and knowledge gaps in the professional ranks of the sector.

However, of the half million professionals working in the UK, only 507 are building conservation-accredited.

This equates to one accredited surveyor for every 85,000 traditional buildings, and only one engineer with relevant conservation experience for every 276,000 pre-1919 structures.

The report also shows that new recruits may be ill-equipped to replace experienced professionals approaching retirement, creating a vacuum in this part of the industry.

Graeme Ogilvy, director for ConstructionSkills Scotland, said: "We've taken some giant steps to ensure that more people are taking up these traditional building crafts that are so important to preserving the country’s heritage buildings.

"But there is more work to do. As this report shows in particular we need to ensure that those working in the professional sector have the knowledge and skills needed to specify the right traditional building materials and oversee the work on our heritage buildings."

(GK/JM)