Skip to main content
Department for Communities Department for Communities An Roinn Pobal Depairtment fur Commonities

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Topics
  • Publications
  • Consultations
  • Contact

Translation help

Translate this page

Select a language

  • Arabic — عربي
  • Chinese (Simplified) — 中文简体
  • Chinese (Traditional) — 中文繁體
  • Dutch — Nederlands
  • Filipino — Filipino
  • French — Français
  • German — Deutsch
  • Hungarian — Magyar
  • Irish — Gaeilge
  • Italian — Italiano
  • Latvian — Latviešu
  • Lithuanian — Lietuvių kalba
  • Polish — Polski
  • Portuguese — Português
  • Romanian — Română
  • Russian — Русский
  • Slovak — Slovenčina
  • Spanish — Español
  • Ukrainian — Українська
  • Over a million pounds available for investment in Built Heritage

    Topics:
    • Historic environment, 
    • Historic Environment Funding & Grants

    Date published: 20 May 2022

    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
    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.
    4. Follow us on Twitter @CommunitiesNI
    5. Media enquiries to DfC Press Office on 028 9082 3509 or email Press Office. 
    6. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

    Latest news

    • Lyons urges take-up of Cladding Safety Scheme to protect residents

      18 June 2025

    • Lyons sets out first anti-poverty strategy for Northern Ireland

      17 June 2025

    • Ministerial Statement by Gordon Lyons MLA, Minister for Communities - Launch of Public Consultation on the Executive's Anti-Poverty Strategy

      17 June 2025

    • Conditional discharge for benefit fraud

      16 June 2025

    More news …
    Share this page Share on Facebook (external link opens in a new window / tab) Share on X (external link opens in a new window / tab) Share by email (external link opens in a new window / tab)

    Department footer links

    • Crown copyright
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy
    • Cookies
    • Accessibility
    • The Northern Ireland Executive
    • The Executive Office
    • Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
    • Department for Communities
    • Department for Education
    • Department for the Economy
    • Department of Finance
    • Department for Infrastructure
    • Department for Health
    • Department of Justice
    • nidirect.gov.uk — the official government website for Northern Ireland citizens