Built by architects, for architects.

Understand any listed building. Produce the heritage statement yourself.

A platform on which architects and professionals understand their heritage building projects and produce compliant heritage statements. It does the reading first, then asks you the questions you didn’t know to ask. You stay the author.

Book a 30-minute call Sign up at no cost

See a sample Statement of Heritage Significance →

Built by SOANE Architects — RIBA Chartered Architect · ARB Registered · RIBA Conservation Registrant · 17+ years specialising in listed and historic buildings · SOANE Architects ↗

Used on real listed buildings across England. Built by SOANE Architects Ltd for its own conservation practice.

NHLE-verified list entries

Written to NPPF August 2026

Historic England guidance

Conservation Principles 2008 MAGIC Map NPPG Compliant Heritage Gateway GPA2 / GPA3 (Setting & Decision-Taking)

We are working with UK Planning Gateway (UKPG), the online planning-submission platform, to build a direct submission connection from HeritageAI. It is not live yet. About UKPG →

Extending a Grade II house

Statement of Heritage Significance (SoHS) then Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA), with the cumulative impact of earlier extensions assessed.

Repairs to a listed public building

Repointing and services, Listed Building Consent (LBC) scoped, mortar and method statements flagged.

Advising a client before purchase

Pre-application route, condition survey and schedule of works identified before fees are committed.

The drudgery

Hours that aren’t design

Designation records, policy, planning history, historic mapping — hours that aren’t design.

The skill gap

Nobody taught you to read an old building

Most architects were never shown how to work out what makes a building significant.

The cost of a specialist

A heritage consultant on every job

Practices under fifty staff can’t justify one, and validation stalls when the statement is thin.

Why we built this

We built this because we needed it

SOANE Architects Ltd is a conservation practice with more than seventeen years specialising in listed and historic buildings. As the heritage workload grew, so did the hours spent on the parts of the job that aren’t design — pulling designation records, checking policy, compiling planning history, structuring statements to Historic England’s guidance.

We systemised it so we could take on more work without lowering the standard. Then we realised every practice working on old buildings has the same problem, and that the system was worth sharing.

HeritageAI is that system. SOANE Architects still uses it every day.

It asks you. The system gathers the context, then prompts you on site with the questions that make the building legible.
You stay the author. Your judgement, your signature.
A RIBA Heritage Architect is a call away. SOANE Architects is on the same account when a building, case officer or policy needs one.

Named registers only

It queries the National Heritage List for England, the council’s planning records, historic Ordnance Survey mapping, Heritage Gateway and the Historic Environment Record, and MAGIC — not the open internet.

Listings checked against the official record

Where a list entry number is given, it is checked against the National Heritage List for England (NHLE). Verified grade and dates replace anything drafted.

You are the reviewer and the author

Every source is shown so you can trace each line back. On the self-serve route the judgement and the signature are yours.

See exactly what the AI checks →

READY?
Preliminary Planning and Heritage Appraisal (PPHA), so you visit site knowing what to look for.
READ…
Site visit, then the Statement of Heritage Significance (SoHS).
…RESPOND
Develop the proposals against the SoHS, then the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA).
RESOLVE!
The Planning & Heritage Statement (P&HS), which includes the Design and Access Statement (DAS).

Each step feeds the next. You don’t start again.

See the full process →

The research

Designation, policy, planning history and historic mapping, retrieved from the registers and compiled with sources — not from memory, and not from a search engine.

The structure

Documents built to Historic England Advice Note 12 and the current National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), in the register a case officer expects to read.

The learning

Most architects were never taught how to read an old building. This teaches you, on your own project, while producing the document.

The support

SOANE Architects is a call away when a building, a case officer or a policy question needs a RIBA Heritage Architect — on the same account, whenever you need it.

See a sample Statement of Heritage Significance →

Policy

Already on the August 2026 NPPF

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was rewritten on 17 August 2026. Historic environment policy moved to Chapter 20 and is now cited as HE1 to HE10 rather than by paragraph number, and the old “less than substantial harm” test was dropped.

Policy HE6 now names energy efficiency, low-carbon heating, and bringing a vacant or underused listed building back into use as public benefits to be weighed against harm. Your statements cite the policy your case officer is working to.

Read the current NPPF on GOV.UK →

Local authority searches — what it takes to read a listed building properly.

Local Development PlansConservation Area DesignationsNon-Designated Heritage AssetsTree Preservation Orders (TPOs)Article 4 DirectionsPermitted Development RightsLocal Planning Applications SearchBuilding Control RecordsParty Wall NoticesListed Building Consent HistorySection 106 AgreementsCommunity Infrastructure Levy RecordsNeighbourhood PlansSupplementary Planning DocumentsConservation Area Character AppraisalsLocal Heritage ListsArchaeological Priority AreasFlood Risk Zone RecordsHighways and Access RecordsEcology and Biodiversity RecordsContaminated Land RegisterTree and Hedgerow SurveysEnforcement NoticesPlanning Appeal DecisionsDesign and Access Statement PrecedentsWard-Level Planning Committee MinutesArticle 2(3) Land RecordsBuilding Preservation NoticesLocal Development PlansConservation Area DesignationsNon-Designated Heritage AssetsTree Preservation Orders (TPOs)Article 4 DirectionsPermitted Development RightsLocal Planning Applications SearchBuilding Control RecordsParty Wall NoticesListed Building Consent HistorySection 106 AgreementsCommunity Infrastructure Levy RecordsNeighbourhood PlansSupplementary Planning DocumentsConservation Area Character AppraisalsLocal Heritage ListsArchaeological Priority AreasFlood Risk Zone RecordsHighways and Access RecordsEcology and Biodiversity RecordsContaminated Land RegisterTree and Hedgerow SurveysEnforcement NoticesPlanning Appeal DecisionsDesign and Access Statement PrecedentsWard-Level Planning Committee MinutesArticle 2(3) Land RecordsBuilding Preservation Notices

You produce it

£500 per document, paid on download.

You get full access to the system from the onboarding call. Run the research, upload your existing plans and location plan, build the Statement of Heritage Significance, review the evidence, make the judgement calls. The system checks your drawings against the statement as it’s generated, so the pack is consistent before you submit. Download when you’re ready.

Responsibility

You are the author. You check it, you sign it, it’s your document. Confirm with your broker that your professional indemnity insurance covers it, as you would for any application you submit.

SOANE produces it

Price on application.

SOANE Architects visits the site, carries out the research and produces the document as your appointed heritage consultant, against a written brief and scope agreed with you. Before anything is submitted it is checked against your authority’s validation checklist, and where it helps we correspond directly with the case officer and obtain pre-application advice. You mark it up and bill your client as you would any sub-consultant.

Responsibility

SOANE Architects is the author, under its own professional appointment and its own insurance. Its name appears on the document.

Where a person checks the work

When you produce it

The person checking is you. The system gives you every source it used — designation, policy reference, date — so you can trace each line back and make your own judgement. It checks your uploaded drawings against the statement so the two agree. It won’t hand you a conclusion to rubber-stamp.

When SOANE produces it

The checks are ours: a person confirms the right building, the right list entry and the right records before drafting; the draft is read back against the sources; and the finished document is read once more by a RIBA Heritage Architect before it leaves us.

Documents and prices

Preliminary Planning and Heritage Appraisal (PPHA)See the sample£195
Statement of Heritage Significance (SoHS)See the sample£500
Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA)See the sample£500
Planning and Heritage Statement (P&HS)See the sample£500

Every Preliminary Planning and Heritage Appraisal (PPHA) includes a video call with an RIBA Chartered Architect.

The Design and Access Statement is included in the Planning & Heritage Statement.

Thirty minutes with the founder.

Bring a live project. We’ll run the Preliminary Planning and Heritage Appraisal (PPHA) on it while you watch, at no charge on the call, so you can judge the output on a building you know. If it’s useful, you leave the call with a login.

Book a 30-minute call

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Is HeritageAI a competitor to my practice?

No. HeritageAI was built by SOANE Architects, a conservation practice, to handle its own research and documentation. It never contacts your client, and under the You produce it route your name is the only name on the document. If you’d rather SOANE produced it, SOANE acts as your appointed heritage consultant — the same relationship you’d have with an ecologist or a structural engineer.

Do I need a heritage accreditation to sign a Statement of Heritage Significance?

No accreditation is required to produce a Statement of Heritage Significance, a Heritage Impact Assessment or a Planning & Heritage Statement. You need to be competent to do the work and insured for it, as with anything you submit. HeritageAI gives you the researched, sourced evidence base to work from; the judgement and the signature are yours.

What does "nothing to pay until you download" actually mean?

Exactly that. There’s no monthly fee and no retainer. You can run the research and build the document at no cost. You pay £500 when you download the finished document — and you choose when that is.

What happens when I get stuck?

Call. SOANE Architects is on the same account and can advise, take on a difficult section, or produce the whole document as your appointed consultant, priced on application. That’s the point of the two routes: you’re never on your own with a building you can’t read.

Is the PPHA a document for my client or for me?

For you. It tells you what the building is, what applies, and what to look for on site — before you commit design time. You charge it to your client as you would any disbursement.

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