English Heritage has asked for £64m to save 16 ‘basket cases’ that represent its most endangered sites. Daily Telegraph. Financial Times

The list includes two London pumping stations, designed by the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the 1860s, which are redundant, in poor condition, have no obvious future use and, together, need at least £5m to save them.

The colossal cathedral-like aircraft hangar at RAF Cardington near Bedford, made from cast iron and corrugated iron, needs £5m, while the closed Chatterley Whitfield Colliery near Stoke-on-Trent, a sprawling scheduled ancient monument that includes 15 scheduled structures and five listed buildings, requires a £25m lifeline.

The 16 sites head English Heritage’s latest annual register of listed buildings at risk. This year the list contains 1,235 entries, 3•2% of all grade I- and grade II*-listed structures.

Rising property prices are encouraging developers to restore listed buildings and bring them back into use, resulting in far more threatened sites being saved. Some could be turned into flats or offices in spite of their listed status.