Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Built Heritage Act

Goals and results

The objective is to produce an assessment of the effectiveness of the Built Heritage Act and its potential development needs.

In the evaluation, the following perspectives and research questions, among others, will be taken into account:

1. Functioning of the Act. Does the Built Heritage Act operate as intended within the overall framework of building protection?
2. Functioning of the provisions and their impacts from the perspectives of different stakeholders.
3. Challenges related to the application of the Act.
4. Challenges in the implementation of protection measures.
5. Clarity and effectiveness of the obligations, responsibilities, and roles of different actors.
6. What amendments and additions are needed to the Built Heritage Act to ensure that its objectives and protection measures are achieved more effectively?
7. The interface and functioning of regulation related to the Land Use Act and the Construction Act. Application of the Built Heritage Act in areas covered by a detailed plan and outside such areas.
8. Functioning of Sections 2 and 8 of the Act in a changing operating environment (e.g. modern built heritage).

Starting points

The Act on the Protection of the Built Heritage entered into force on 1 July 2010, repealing the former Building Protection Act (60/1985). The aim of the Built Heritage Act is to safeguard the temporal and regional diversity of the built cultural environment, to preserve its character and distinctive features, and to promote its culturally sustainable management and use. Under the Act, buildings, structures, groups of buildings, or built areas may be protected if they are significant from the perspectives of building history, architecture, construction technology, specific environmental values, or the use of a building or events associated with it. The Built Heritage Act is a general act concerning building protection. Section 2 of the Act outlines the main features of the scope of application of different laws concerning building protection. Unless otherwise provided, the protection of built heritage is governed by the Built Heritage Act.

In areas covered by a detailed plan, protection provisions in the plan constitute the primary means of protecting built heritage. For this reason, planning provisions are in practice a considerably more common means of protection than decisions based on the Built Heritage Act. In Finland, the number of buildings protected under detailed plans and special legislation is approximately 30,000–35,000, of which about 90% are protected through detailed plans.
Several partial reforms have been made to the Built Heritage Act. The most significant amendments entered into force on 1 January 2021 and 1 January 2026. The 2021 reform abolished the requirement that building protection decisions made by Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) be submitted to the Ministry of the Environment for confirmation; extended the right to initiate proposals; clarified provisions on hearings and statements; introduced provisions on derogations; clarified rights to obtain information; and clarified compensation provisions.

As part of the 2026 reform of central government regional administration, state licensing, steering, and supervisory functions were consolidated into a new nationwide Licensing and Supervisory Authority as of 1 January 2026. At the same time, ten new regional Vitality Centres were established. The aim is to strengthen and harmonise licensing and supervisory practices across regions and to streamline processes and services. Cultural environment tasks previously handled by the ELY Centres are now carried out by both the Licensing and Supervisory Authority and the regional Vitality Centres. Decisions under the Built Heritage Act are made by the Licensing and Supervisory Authority. Supervision under the Act is the responsibility of the Licensing and Supervisory Authority and the Finnish Heritage Agency. State aid under the Act and the promotion of the preservation of built heritage are the responsibility of the Vitality Centres and the Finnish Heritage Agency.

The European Union does not have legislation specifically on building protection, although the objectives of building protection, like those of safeguarding cultural heritage more broadly, are taken into account in certain Union regulations. Finland is a party to numerous international conventions concerning cultural and built heritage adopted by UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The most important of these include the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1972), the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (Hague Convention, 1954) and its Second Protocol, the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (Granada Convention, 1985), the European Landscape Convention (Florence Convention, 2000), and the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention, 2011).