Who would want to be chairman of English Heritage today? Here is a quango which for ten years has been not just a mere Cinderella but the whipping boy of its sponsor, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Over the past six years museums and galleries received a 36 per cent increase, the Arts Council 54 percent and Sport a whopping 98 per cent. By contrast the EH grant has been frozen for a decade — which in real terms means a loss of £100 million vitally needed for endangered historic buildings and EH’s large collection of medieval castles and abbeys.

The big question is whether its soft-spoken but purposeful new head, Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, can change this — he comes with a seat in the House of Lords. Simon Thurley, EH’s feisty chief executive, was understandably determined to have a chairman who could speak for heritage in Parliament. Better still, as leader of Kent County Council for seven years until 2005, Lord Bruce-Lockhart comes with experience of budgets and corporate plans. At a first interview I found him enthralled by his task.

His opening words were: “I love Victorian mills — 19th-century industrial heritage is simply wonderful.” He is talking not just about textile mills but the whole engineering legacy of canals, railways and warehouses.

“I’ve always taken an interest in church architecture,” he continues. “My grandfather was a bishop and, as my parents were often abroad, he largely brought me up. I have a very high regard for the Church of England as an institution.” He enthuses about Inspired!, the EH campaign for historic churches.

“It has attracted a wide degree of support among Parliamentarians. It’s an issue of both funding and expertise but also of doing the little things like clearing gutters which leads to leaks and dry rot. We calculate that about £100 million is being spent annually on church fabric, £60 million from congregations, £25 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The latest assessment is that about £175-£200 million needed each year. We’re halfway there.”

He studied at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester before setting off to manage a farm in Zimbabwe. Back in England, he was an active member of the Weald of Kent preservation society and stood for election to the county council in 1989, concerned about the environmental impact of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

“A recent Government survey shows that 70 per cent of the population visit historic sites. Heritage provides a sense of place. In areas of racial tension, if you can instil a shared sense of belonging, you are halfway to restoring people’s confidence. Heritage is not just massively important for tourism it’s being proud of Britain and England.”

He grasps the importance of bringing the lists of historic buildings up to date, particularly in cities such as Bath, Oxford and Cambridge.

“Listing is the heart of our responsibility. I think we do it well. We will move as fast as possible to revising the lists on an area basis as well as reviving thematic listing of building types,” he says.

He is concerned about proposals to list controversial postwar housing estates. “When we visited Plymouth to look at postwar developments proposed for listing I felt very strongly that we were not looking at the whole picture, the naval buildings and the Regency terraces. The need was to consult, talk to local MPs and produce a heritage plan for the city.”

He is also keen to simplify procedures, especially for organisations such as large country house estates or universities which have numerous listed buildings which constantly need work.

He is convinced that English Heritage can continue to buck the trend of declining visitor numbers with better facilities. At Dover Castle there are plans to double the number of visitors to 600,000.

He also acknowledges the biggest complaint about EH is that its procedures are painfully cumbersome and applications for both consents and grants can be drawn out to a nightmare extent by constant demands for more information and preliminary work while buildings deteriorates.

“Over the last seven years the number of cases dealt with in 28 days has risen from 75 per cent to 95 per cent. But when you devolve responsibility to regions you can’t then try and control them.”

His key achievement has been to secure a 3 per cent inflation proofing to the EH budget for this year.