Abstract: Using a unique panel dataset for English cities I investigate the welfare impact of heritage conservation areas that protect historic districts by regulating development. I estimate a housing cost function and find that conservation area designation over 1997-2007 significantly increased house prices by reducing productivity. In a second step, I construct a quality of life index and regress it on the predicted productivity effects of designation. The quality of life effect is significant and outweighs the housing productivity effect, implying that designation is welfare improving. These results are robust to instrumentation using a Bartik-type instrument based on housing build date.