I recently met a friend who lived in a Grade II listed building. He soon began telling me some of his problems.

The building when he bought it was derelict, and had a dangerous building notice attached, where the big chimney was falling down. He repaired and renovated the big open fire on the ground floor, but in the bedroom above, the stub of a half-demolished chimney still protrudes eight feet into the room. He wanted to demolish the stub - the fire below will be vented by an external flue anyway. But the inspector would not let him; so what should be a fine bedroom is turned into a pokey box room.

And then there is the sheer inefficiency. The inspectors are always watching their backs, will never give a firm decision, and are always changing their minds. On one occasion, he was told that he could start work, with eight conditions attached, and the formal consent would arrive within three weeks. He arranged for builders and scaffolders to arrive four weeks later. But the consent still did not arrive. He rang up to complain and was told 'Oh I've changed my mind - I have sent your case up to the DCMS to approve'. The scaffolders and builders had to be dismissed - at a considerable cost. He had revised the plans no fewer than four times to comply with ever-altering conditions. The real problem was that there was no-one he could complain to. English Heritage, he said, did not run an adequate complaints system; the inspectors were tyrants, their word was law, they were not accountable in any way to the customers - there was no system of checks or balances.

I have heard similar complaints elsewhere, and it is about time that English Heritage took account of them. I gather that there are proposals to set up some sort of internal complaints system, which will be quite useless. What is needed is a proper independent system on which no one associated with English Heritage is represented. It should be made up entirely of fellow owners of listed buildings, all of whom are presumably enthusiasts for old buildings but who see the problems from the practical point of view. English Heritage should stop bullying property owners: they are an essential part of the preservation of our heritage.