Grants of up to £5m on offer from National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has resumed its grant programme and will prioritise projects that focus on recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

Project grants of between £3,000 and £5m are available from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for projects “that demonstrate the value of heritage to our national lie and which support local economies, places and communities”, according to the NLHF.

The announcement has been made as the NLHF refocuses its priorities for 2021/22.

Between April 2021 and March 2022 it will prioritise heritage projects that:

• boost the local economy
• encourage skills development and job creation
• support wellbeing
• create better places to live, work and visit
• improve the resilience of organisations working in heritage

Ros Kerslake, NLHF chief executive, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, creating economic prosperity and supporting personal wellbeing. All of these are going to be vitally important as we build back from the pandemic.

"During 2020 we focused on supporting heritage across the UK to adapt and respond to the immediate impact of the COVID-19 crisis. By the end of this financial year we will have supported more than 1,500 organisations across the heritage sector with over £500million of National Lottery and Government funding.

“Our focus now is to support the heritage sector to strengthen its recovery and to build back for positive change – reopening applications for heritage projects is key to the success of this.”