The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has today announced an overall budget of £250m for new grants next financial year (March 2011-12) – £45m more than the budget for the current year.

This news is the result of the recently confirmed increase in the share of Lottery funding available for heritage and continuing healthy National Lottery ticket sales.

HLF’s Trustees have decided now to allocate £17m of this substantial additional resource to four programmes.

This will give a boost to communities and to important parts of the historic environment during these tough economic times.

Announcing the plans now will also give customers as much time as possible to develop their applications.

The following budgets have been agreed:

· £11m for Townscape Heritage Initiative - for grants that help regenerate historic areas with particular social and economic need (£500,000 to £2m) - an increase of £1m on 2010-11 budget.

· £23m for repair grants for places of worship scheme – funding for urgent, high-level repairs to listed places of worship (£10,000 to £250,000) - an increase of £4m in England³ on 2010-11 budget

· £21m for ‘Your Heritage’ – our popular small grants programme (£3,000 to £50,000) which helps voluntary and community groups to conserve and enjoy local heritage - an increase of £5m on 2010-11 budget

· £17m for Landscape Partnerships - our innovative programme to conserve distinctive landscapes, led by local partnerships (£250,000 to £2million) - an increase of £7m on 2010-11 budget

A full business plan for 2011-12, detailing the remaining allocations within the £250m budget, will be agreed and announced in spring 2011.

Dame Jenny Abramsky, chair of the HLF, commented: “We hope this will be heartening news. £250m will make a real difference across the UK. We think it’s particularly important to be increasing our investment in smaller grants having long seen the heritage benefits of people getting involved at a local level.

"Whether it’s a locally important historic building or church in desperate need of repair or a beautiful landscape that needs attention, we know that community involvement is the key to long-term success.”

John Penrose MP, minister for Heritage, added: “The founding vision of the National Lottery was that it should primarily benefit the arts, sport, heritage and the voluntary sector, but this got lost along the way.

"I’m pleased the recent share change has put this right and that organisations who will need support from the Heritage Lottery Fund will quickly feel the benefit. This increase in funding is fantastic news for all those organisations and charities who will secure grants, ensuring our wonderful heritage is protected for years to come.”

HLF has already announced a higher allocation for grants of over £5m - £30m in 2011-12 (an increase of £10m).

In addition, HLF has made some changes to its procedures in response to the challenges facing potential and current applicants, including relaxing its match funding requirements for those who are finding it hard to raise funds elsewhere to just 10% of overall grant for grants over £1m and 5% for grants under £1m.

Abramsky added: “We wanted to set out some programme allocations for our 2011-12 budget early, so that applicants can plan. We are currently reviewing our position across a whole range of issues and we will make further decisions in spring 2011 once we have a better understanding of the impact of the Spending Review alongside heritage needs and priorities. We intend to remain as flexible as possible.”

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