Over a million pounds available for investment in Built Heritage

Three funds totalling more than £1million aimed at conserving heritage assets, tackling social isolation, poverty, and increasing knowledge and public awareness, are now open for applications, Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has confirmed.

Over a million pounds available for investment in Built Heritage

Minister Hargey said:

“I am delighted that my Department is able to facilitate this much needed support for our heritage. Our historic buildings and monuments are a key part of what makes where we live and work unique. Well conserved and in use, they add greatly to the character of our surroundings, give us a strong sense of a shared history and help to drive our economy though encouraging tourism and other direct investment. This funding aims to support the owners and communities who are working so hard to maintain our heritage and enable its full potential to be realised.”

The Historic Environment Fund District Council Heritage Development Support Stream is a fund of up to £10k per council to help them carry out heritage development activity. This can be wide ranging and follows a successful pilot last year where talks, walks, heritage trails, maintenance work and signage associated with buildings and monuments were all supported.

The Village Catalyst is a partnership of Department for Communities (DfC) with Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera), The Housing Executive and the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) focused on enabling village communities to develop new uses for historic buildings at risk that tackle social isolation and rural poverty. This year £690k of support for viability, development and the delivery of projects on site is available. Individual awards for site work are capped at £200k per scheme.

The Historic Environment Fund Roof and Window Repair Stream supports owners to carry out minimum work to keep listed buildings watertight. A maximum of £6k per roof (£12k for thatched buildings) is available from a £250k budget. The aim is to spread the available support wide and help owners tackle the impact of more extreme weather resulting from climate change.  The assistance is open to all listed buildings except churches, where the Department has separately supported the National Churches Trust to operate a maintenance fund.

Further information on these grant schemes and on other sources of heritage funding is available at Historic Environment Funding & Grants | Department for Communities (communities-ni.gov.uk)

Notes to editors: 

1. The Village Catalyst is a partnership between DfC, Daera; The Housing Executive and the AHF. Viability Grants of up to £10k are available to support work to consider and develop viable proposals for heritage at risk. Buildings must be listed or unlisted historic buildings in a Conservation Area. Development grants of up to £20k are available for drawing up detailed plans and obtaining regulatory permissions. Delivery grants of up to £200k are available for capital works on site. Grants are only available to social enterprises or charities.
2. The Historic Environment Fund seeks to stimulate action across the historic environment. This year the focus is on supporting repair work to roofs and windows and on supporting councils to undertake heritage development activity. 
3. Funding is limited to the current financial year and will be allocated based upon applications received.
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