Farsighted teachers you had Margaret: though I would say that it is the misuse of TV that is causing a lot of problems. And for that, I firmly blame the government and the BBC.

That site rings a bell. I has a look at a couple of years ago, and have completely forgotten about it - thanks for the reminder!

When you get the law too far involved, things fall apart (we see this with Brexit).
We have an incredible and Byzantine structure of preservation of buildings in this country. Don't get me wrong, it is right to preserve older buildings which have interest and what we might call a cultural value. The very serious issue here however, is we have an immense legal sledgehammer, and it does not serve the purposes of the community, employment and the economy and indeed even history and culture.
Take the example of Bath in the West Country. Most of the city is covered by very tight planning restrictions because the buildings date from the mid 18th century. But few people can afford to buy these Georgian houses so they get rented out, and rented to transients who do little for the town which has few employment opportunities anyway. The houses are now visibly crumbling like some soviet-era bloc, the city slides even further into decay, with all the problems that brings, drugs, crime, sub-culture. Nobody seems to have any work further feeding the urban slide.
What makes this far worse is the crazy laxity the other way whereby we have the presumption that anyone can develop land which is blighting so much countryside.
We need as with so much in this country some joined-up thinking - indeed any thinking at all would be welcome. (I blame television - which my teachers used to say would infallibly destroy the country)

Yes. Problem is it takes lots of money to maintain them.

If you like old buildings Lex, seek out 28dayslater forum. Some of the sights are heartbreaking.

It's a shame to see these buildings in such a state: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/historic-sites-coventry-warwickshire-risk-17139593