The Heritage Lottery Fund yesterday launched its new £125m grant programme, Heritage Enterprise, designed to unlock the latent commercial potential of unused historic buildings and sites across the UK.
HLF will commit at least £25m per annum over the next five years in a scheme that aims to empower not-for-profit organisations to work in partnership with the private sector to rescue and return neglected historic buildings to productive use.
The new grant programme was inspired by the new research document New ideas need old buildings, an analysis of the relationship between commercial businesses and this country’s historic buildings.
Based on research commissioned by HLF working with Oxford Economics and Colliers International, one of its conclusions is that businesses based in historic buildings are more productive and generate more wealth, contributing £47bn to the UK economy annually.
Heritage Enterprise hopes to tap into this potential for commercial enterprise, boosting local economies, jobs and skills.
Historical buildings' market failure
Heritage Enterprise is designed to address ‘market failure’ - where historic buildings have failed to attract investment to realise their potential business premium because their cost of repair has meant that it is not commercially viable for private developers to take on.
Grants of between £100,000 and £5m will plug the gap between the costs of repair and the value of the property after restoration.
In addition, projects can apply to the HLF for a limited amount of funding that will support capital works while a project is being planned.
This could support urgent repair works to prevent a building’s further deterioration (‘stabilisation works’) or could include the building of new temporary structures designed to allow ‘meanwhile uses’, so that vacant sites can be brought back into use at the earliest opportunity ahead of full restoration.
Start-up grants
To help local communities begin a Heritage Enterprise project and organise themselves to take on a heritage building with a constitution which will be eligible for funding, HLF is also offering start-up grants between £3,000 and £10,000.
These grants will enable groups to create the organisational structures needed to deliver projects and to help with the associated costs, such as obtaining professional and legal advice.
The deadlines to apply for a Heritage Enterprise grant will begin in May, with first decisions in autumn. More information is available from the HLF website.
Ian Lush, chairman of the Heritage Investment Working Group and chief executive of the Architectural Heritage Fund, called Heritage Enterprise “a really bold and welcome move at exactly the right time”.
Lush said: “Finding new models for investing in heritage are vital to long-term sustainability and we know from experience that investment from the private sector not only secures the future of these important buildings but also has a very positive impact on local economies.”
