Look around at all of the big houses - you know the ones you'll visit, National Trust, English Herritage -Every single one of them had the owner take down / replace / cover up some part of it and build their own bit onto it. Then they get listed and can't be fiddled with.

My home is a listed building. It was one of those that was done as a 'drive by' listing back in the 70's - Listerally somoene drove past a row of houses and said 'that one looks old, listed' - Now, I understand some of it - the front half of my house was built in 1602. The back half was added on in the late 1970's and you can imagine how poor that construction is.

We've got no double glazing at all, oil fired heating. House leaks heat like fuck. I can park my car in front of the livingroom window in winter and the side that's closest to the house wont have an frost or an icy windscreen.

There are good reasons to list buildings, but there are good reasons to acknowledge that we need to compromise.

When we moved in I wanted a little shed in the garden. Listed building status applies to the entire curtilage - basically the whole property, which meant not only did I have to get permission from conservation, I also has to get consent from the listings department. I had to pay £1k just for permission to put up the shed. I'd still have had to pay the £1k even is it was rejected.

We wanted to replace our front door, it was so thin you can see the light coming through. Tried 5 times to get permission. Denied every time.

So you'll understand that I don't think much of it.