Blue plaque scheme 'under threat' due to cuts But English Heritage, which took responsibility for the scheme in 1986, said the 34 per cent cut in its budget made the programme unsustainable in its current form. In a letter obtained by the Mail on Sunday, Dr Emily Cole, head of the blue plaque team, said: "These are extremely difficult times for English Heritage and for the scheme, which has a very uncertain future." Today, a spokeswoman said the blue plaque scheme would be "funded in an alternative way in the future" to make it more economical. "As a step towards creating a new and more self-sustaining scheme, the blue plaques team will be reduced to two people during 2013," she said. They will continue to erect plaques already agreed by the independent advisory panel and work up the details of a new approach to running the scheme that will be announced in 2014. Under the current programme, members of the public can nominate eminent public figures for a tribute. Candidates must have been dead for 20 years or passed the centenary of their birth. Tristram Hunt, the historian and Labour MP, said: "The blue plaque scheme has been a genuinely innovative heritage project. It will be an unnecessary loss and they should do everything possible to keep it going.