News
HLF new funding policies
12 July 2012
The Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has pledged to work with heritage organisations and other partners across the UK to build a resilient heritage economy.
Dame Jenny Abramsky set out HLF’s plans for investing £375m a year of lottery money over the next five years and announced new funding streams and initiatives designed to enable a strong, robust sector to respond in new ways to the conditions it now faces.
In addition, she said that HLF would listen to the 2,000 responses to its consultation, which called on HLF to use its long experience and considerable influence to stimulate new ideas and approaches, share best practice and to act as a strong voice for heritage.
Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of HLF, said: “We believe that, as the biggest funder for the sector, we should respond to the changing world with flexibility. We want to ensure our heritage is supported effectively and imaginatively, contributing to the economy and helping it continue to flourish for generations to come.”
John Penrose MP, Minister for Tourism and Heritage, said: “Our heritage – whether it’s historic buildings or breath-taking landscapes and natural features – really matters. It plays a vital role in our economy, and will be an important element in our recovery. It brings money in, provides jobs and brings our history to life for successive generations – best of all, it helps to make us proud of who we are and where we have come from.
“The HLF has done great work over the last 18 years supporting heritage projects, and the new strategy aims to take this still further. I commend it to everyone.”
New funding policies and initiatives
The strategic framework for 2013-2018 sets out plans designed to deliver long term and sustainable benefits in response to the newly emerging needs facing the heritage sector. In particular they include:
- offer support for building organisational resilience in the heritage sector, through supporting the development of skills, including running a further round of the Skills for the Future programme; offering development funding and professional mentoring to develop robust projects and introducing start-up grants and transition funding for organisations needing to cope with new challenges;
- lead the way in encouraging the sector to use digital technology, by asking HLF-supported projects to make their digital content widely available at no charge. HLF will also fund stand-alone digital projects;
- extend HLF support for heritage in private ownership under the Our Heritage programme (£10,000 to £100,000) for physical works to heritage provided they achieve a step-change in terms of public access and engagement;
- continue to make applying to HLF more straightforward, with the introduction of Sharing Heritage – a new very simple grant programme for smaller projects needing £3,000-£10,000;
View the full strategic framework publication and responses from the sector
This item was taken from HLF news 5 Jul 2012
