I read with interest Mr Slack\'s thoughts on Heritage Information (NSS February issue), a charity set up with the backing of English Heritage and the Department of Trade & Industry.

He is right, of course, to say that craftsmen fortunate enough to enjoy continuously busy books will find little point in our register. However, there are, unfortunately, many hundreds of not-so-lucky (yet similarly skilled) craftsmen entitled, and eager, to tell the wider public about their skills.

The shortage of traditional building skills in this country is an oft-heard lament that Heritage Information was set up to help address.

We exist, simply, to provide the public with easy access to the UK\'s skilled craftsmen, in the belief that skills will continue to die if we do not fire the public imagination.

To do that we must put public access, however undesirable that may be to those with sufficient word-of-mouth business, first and foremost.

There is a real need for public access to objective information on tried-and-tested contractors, consultants and craftsmen.

Government-funded organisations are, however, unable to provide this for legal reasons. Heritage Information\'s idea has found support from backers like English Heritage because bad builders and inept craftsmen have done, and continue to do, much to undermine public confidence.

As John Fidler, director of building conservation at English Heritage, explains, Heritage Information aims to become a benchmark for quality and public assurance in this field.

Heritage Information is a unique national resource of information on people, products and skills involved in every aspect of conservation and repair.

I agree that funding for a venture such as ours is a difficult issue and one which may be interpreted by some as a cynical play for profits at the expense of the struggling craftsman.

However, the fee we charge will not buy anyone a place on the register. Only those vetted to nationally-recognised criteria by our team of registrars (including stone masons) will gain entry.

And I can assure you that, once this vetting process has been completed, only a tiny margin remains with which to pay our small number of staff.

Finally, I hope that Heritage Information will encourage a cross-fertilisation of ideas and communication across the sector. Oiling the wheels of conservation in the UK means providing not only a vetted register of craftsmen, consultants and contractors, but conservation-related books, jobs, specialist sources of information, courses and grants as well.