Further Details of £1.57 Billion Culture Recovery Fund Announced
The Government has announced further detail of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, including £50 million capital funding allocated to Historic England to distribute through the Heritage Stimulus Fund.
The aim of the Heritage Stimulus Fund is to restart vital construction and maintenance on heritage sites to preserve visitor attractions, providing immediate work for some of the most vulnerable heritage specialists and contractors in the sector.
The £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund was announced by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden last month. It is the Government’s biggest ever one-off investment in the sector.
The Heritage Stimulus Fund will be delivered across three strands:
- Up to £34m in Programmes of Major Works; grants for organisations who look after a range of nationally important heritage attractions. This funding will kick-start repair and conservation projects which may have stalled due to the restrictions caused by Covid-19. See guidance for applying to this fund.
- Up to £11m has been added to our Covid-19 Emergency HAR Fund, which we launched in June. With an initial budget of up to £3 million, this fund was heavily oversubscribed. With this additional sum up to a further £11 million, we will be able to expand the fund considerably and progress applications with those who have already expressed an interest and who have met all eligibility criteria.
- Up to £5m of top up funding as part of Repair Grants for Heritage at Risk, which will go to existing projects that have already been identified as a priority for urgent support.
This further £50m within the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund is essential for protecting our heritage. The Heritage Stimulus Fund will kick-start repair works at both nationally and locally-cherished historic sites, protect livelihoods of skilled heritage professionals hit hardest by the pandemic and help to save vulnerable sites on our Heritage at Risk Register. This is an important step towards securing a sustainable future for our heritage and the people, often with years of irreplaceable experience, who work tirelessly to conserve it for us all.
This £50 million Heritage Stimulus Fund is in addition to the £88 million Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, delivered in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
