Of the 500,000 English buildings of special architectural or historic interest, which will be statutorily protected by 1988, more than 46,000 are estimated to be at risk from redundancy, underuse, neglect, or decay. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, set up by an Act of Parliament in 1983, is launching an initiative in partnership with local planning authorities and voluntary amenity groups first to inventory and then to monitor the condition or welfare of the built heritage; to assess the nature and magnitude of the threats to the irreplaceable cultural resource (in terms of its state of utility and condition); and to act upon them. This monitoring system is described in detail here, as are ways in which its adoption could be used elsewhere.