The future of Heritage Open Days, the annual event coming up this weekend when many private buildings are opened up to visitors and other historic sites allow free entry, is at risk as English Heritage is going to stop funding it.

Loyd Grossman, chairman of the Heritage Alliance, one of the organisers of the open days, said that funding for heritage has "declined in a catastrophic way" over the past few years.

Speaking to the Today programme he said that governments tend to see heritage as a liability.

"Heritage is one of our great national assets... it gives a distinctivness, a place in the world," he told Jim Naughtie.

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