Funding and Resources
Part of the Heritage Counts series. 5 minute read.
A wide range of organisations provide funding for the historic environment. The 'Funding and Resources' theme brings together datasets that track the funding provided to the sector by a selection of national funders and voluntary organisations.
National public sector funding
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is the department dedicated to the UK's cultural, media, sporting, tourism and charity sectors.
DCMS is directly responsible for several important sources of funding for the historic environment. These include the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, the Memorial Grant Schemes, and funding for Royal Parks and Royal Households.
Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by DCMS. 2021/22 is the final year the English Heritage Trust received Grant in aid from Historic England, after which the Charity is intended to be financially sustainable.
Figure FUN 3.1 – Funding sources for the Historic Environment, 2022/23
Source: DCMS, Historic England, English Heritage, NLHF
Local Authority expenditure on the historic environment
Includes spending and income from key services relating to:
- Archives. All spending on archives
- Heritage. All spending on repair and maintenance of the authority’s historic buildings and ancient monuments, including recovery of expenses; costs of compulsory purchase orders and income from sales of properties so acquired; initiatives or services designed to develop or maintain an awareness of local history, including grants to certain voluntary groups; special events to celebrate historical events
- Museums and galleries. All spend on museums and galleries including grants to independent museums
- Development control. Spending under town and country planning legislation including on Advice; Conservation and listed building applications/Buildings preservation orders/ Urgent works and repairs notices, and spot listings; Listed building and conservation appeals; and Enforcement
- Conservation and listed buildings planning policy. Spend on determination of policy or guidelines for conservation; The designation of conservation areas and the preparation and implementation of any schemes for their enhancement, including conservation area appraisals; Building risk assessment and general advice on historic buildings and conservation areas
Local Authority expenditure on services for the historic environment has significantly decreased (-47%) since 2009/2010.
Figure FUN 3.3a – Local Authority expenditure (£) between 2009/10 and 2022/23
Figure note: Click on the legend to filter through categories
Source: DLUHC
Figure FUN 3.4a – Changes in expenditures across historic environment subcategories between 2009/10 to 2022/3
Source: DLUHC
Figure FUN 3.4b – Local Authority expenditure change (%) on the historic environment, 2009/10 to 2022/3
Figure note: Click the legend to filter the range visible.
Source: DLUHC
National Lottery Heritage Fund funding
The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) is the largest source of public funding for the historic environment in the UK. The following points and data related to England exclusively.
- Since its inception in 1994, it has awarded over £6.8 billion (total value of hard commitments to projects) to more than 37,700 projects up until 2023
- In 2022/23, 861 heritage projects were financed with a total expenditure of £162.7 million
- Over £54 million of this funding was awarded to projects in the 25% most deprived local authorities
- In addition to the National Lottery funding above, the Heritage Fund have awarded over £470 million of funding to over 4,400 projects through grant-in-aid programmes directly funded by the Government
- Use of Grant-in-Aid funding has been particularly prominent since 2020/21
- During the years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of funding awarded by the Heritage Fund dropped significantly. It was during this period that almost half of the total grant-in-aid funding was awarded, over £224 million to over 1,200 projects. It is expected that levels of funding will increase going forward under the Heritage 2033 Strategy announced in January 2024, and the first 3-year delivery plan 2023-26
Figure FUN 3.5 – National Lottery Heritage Fund funding, 2012/13 to 2022/23
Source: NLHF
Countryside Stewardship Scheme
The Countryside Stewardship Scheme provides funding to farmers and other land managers who deliver effective environmental management on their land, including protecting the historic environment.
- In 2023, the scheme’s penultimate year, £20 million of funding was awarded by the scheme through agreements including historic environment options
- In 2023, 1,691 agreements were taken up, a decrease of 21% over the 2022 total (2,142 agreements)
Dataset
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Funding and Resources
ODS spreadsheet of the raw data.
