Introduction
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the United Kingdom’s largest dedicated funder of heritage. It distributes money raised by National Lottery players to projects that conserve, interpret and connect people with the UK’s natural, cultural and historic heritage.
The Fund supports an extensive range of heritage, including historic buildings, museums, archives, landscapes, parks, wildlife, industrial sites, archaeological collections, community traditions, oral histories and culturally significant stories.
Since its establishment in 1994, it has invested approximately £9.5 billion in around 53,000 projects across the United Kingdom. These investments have supported heritage conservation while creating educational opportunities, community facilities, jobs, volunteering placements and local economic benefits.
Despite its name, the National Lottery Heritage Fund is not a privately owned charitable foundation or commercial enterprise foundation. Its legal body is the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, a statutory organisation created under UK legislation. It has no shareholders, family ownership or commercial parent company.
Its principal funding comes from the share of National Lottery proceeds allocated to heritage-related good causes. The Fund therefore operates differently from foundations financed through private endowments, corporate profits or public fundraising campaigns.
History and Background
Origins in the National Heritage Memorial Fund
The National Heritage Memorial Fund was established on 1 April 1980 under the National Heritage Act 1980. It succeeded the National Land Fund and was created as a memorial to people who gave their lives for the United Kingdom.
The Memorial Fund receives government grant-in-aid to protect nationally important heritage that is at risk of being lost. This work remains legally and financially distinct from the distribution of National Lottery money.
Establishment of the Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery etc. Act 1993 extended the trustees’ responsibilities by appointing them as a distributor of the heritage share of National Lottery funding.
The organisation began operating in 1994 under the name Heritage Lottery Fund, commonly abbreviated as HLF. It was responsible for investing National Lottery money in projects that preserved heritage and increased public understanding, access and enjoyment.
Rebranding in 2019
In 2019, the Heritage Lottery Fund became The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The new identity made the relationship between the organisation and National Lottery players clearer.
The legal organisation did not change. The Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund remained responsible for the administration and supervision of the National Lottery heritage funding.
Thirty years of heritage investment
The Fund marked its thirtieth anniversary in 2024. During its first three decades, National Lottery funding contributed to the restoration and development of museums, historic buildings, natural landscapes, cultural institutions, community archives and places of national importance.
Its funding has also helped organisations remove buildings from heritage-at-risk registers, open collections to the public and create new uses for vacant or deteriorating historic properties.
Mission and Purpose
Core purpose
The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s purpose is to invest in heritage that is valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, both now and in the future.
Its approach recognises that heritage can contribute to:
- Community identity and belonging
- Education and skills
- Environmental recovery
- Health and wellbeing
- Tourism and local economies
- Employment and volunteering
- Cultural representation
- Organisational resilience
The Fund does not define heritage only as old buildings or objects. Heritage may include landscapes, wildlife, memories, traditions, languages, music, industrial history, transport, archaeology and stories that communities consider important.
Heritage 2033 strategy
The Fund launched Heritage 2033, its ten-year strategy, in March 2023. It expects to invest approximately £3.6 billion raised by National Lottery players during the strategy period.
Heritage 2033 seeks to make a measurable difference to heritage, people, communities and places throughout the UK.
Four investment principles
All projects applying for National Lottery Heritage Grants must consider four investment principles.
Saving heritage
Projects should conserve, restore, document or protect heritage so that it can be understood and enjoyed by current and future generations.
Protecting the environment
Projects should help nature recover, reduce environmental harm and respond to climate change. Where construction is involved, the Fund encourages restoration and reuse rather than unnecessary new development.
Inclusion, access and participation
Projects should involve a wider range of people in heritage. This may include improving physical accessibility, representing overlooked histories, involving young people or working with communities that have traditionally faced barriers to participation.
Organisational sustainability
Applicants should consider how their organisations and heritage assets will remain financially, environmentally and operationally sustainable after grant funding ends.
Governance and Structure
Legal status
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is administered by the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The trustees form a statutory corporate body created by Parliament. The organisation is not owned by the National Lottery operator, a private company or the grant recipients it supports.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund and National Lottery Heritage Fund are operated by the same trustees but maintain separate accounts:
- The National Heritage Memorial Fund distributes government grant-in-aid.
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund distributes National Lottery proceeds allocated to heritage.
Board of Trustees
The organisation is governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by Dr Simon Thurley CBE.
The Board sets strategic direction, oversees financial and organisational performance and makes decisions on grant requests exceeding £5 million. It also decides applications under certain programmes concerning historic parks, landscapes and townscapes.
The statutory body consists of a Chair and up to 14 other members appointed by the Prime Minister. Trustees are expected to provide experience in heritage, governance, finance, public policy, community participation and organisational leadership.
Executive leadership
The organisation’s Chief Executive is Eilish McGuinness. She leads the executive team responsible for day-to-day administration, grantmaking, strategy implementation, staffing and relationships with government and the heritage sector.
National and regional structure
The Fund has teams throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It operates six national and regional committees that support devolved decision-making. This structure allows funding decisions to consider local heritage needs, community priorities and the different policy environments across the UK.
Governance and accountability
The organisation publishes extensive transparency information, including:
- Annual reports and audited accounts
- Board and committee minutes
- Funding decisions
- Registers of interests
- Transactions exceeding £500
- Procurement information
- Policy directions
- Equality reporting
- Grant statistics and evaluations
The National Audit Office audits its Lottery Distribution Account. The organisation must demonstrate that its income and expenditure have been used for purposes authorised by Parliament.
Funding and Grants
How the Fund is financed
The National Lottery Heritage Fund receives a proportion of the money raised by National Lottery players for good causes.
National Lottery proceeds are paid into the National Lottery Distribution Fund, which is administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Heritage Fund receives its allocated share and commits it to eligible projects.
In 2024–2025, the organisation reported:
- £358.6 million in National Lottery income
- £17.2 million in investment income
- £287.2 million in grant payments
- £27.7 million in operating costs
The organisation also held £689 million in the National Lottery Distribution Fund at 31 March 2025 to support its existing and future grant commitments.
National Lottery Heritage Grants: £10,000–£250,000
This programme supports heritage projects seeking between £10,000 and £250,000.
Applicants may include:
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Charities
- Community groups
- Local authorities
- Faith organisations
- Partnerships
- Private owners of eligible heritage assets
Projects should normally last no longer than five years and must consider the four Heritage 2033 investment principles. Private owners must demonstrate that public benefit will outweigh any private financial gain.
National Lottery Heritage Grants: £250,000–£10 million
Larger heritage projects may request between £250,000 and £10 million.
These grants are generally available to not-for-profit organisations and partnerships led by not-for-profit organisations. Applicants must submit an Expression of Interest before being invited to prepare a full application.
Major grants can support complex initiatives such as:
- Restoration of historic buildings
- Museum redevelopment
- Landscape recovery
- Archive preservation
- Nature conservation
- Heritage-led regeneration
- New visitor and educational facilities
- Large community heritage programmes
Eligible costs
Depending on the programme and project, funding may support:
- Construction and restoration
- Conservation materials
- Staff and professional fees
- Training and apprenticeships
- Equipment
- Digital systems
- Archive cataloguing
- Community engagement
- Research and evaluation
- Volunteer expenses
- Environmental improvements
- Organisational development
Applicants must provide clear project plans, budgets, risk registers and evidence that the heritage and community benefits can be sustained.
Research grants and basic research funding
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is not a conventional provider of unrestricted basic research funding.
It may fund research when it is necessary for a heritage project. Examples include:
- Archaeological investigation
- Historical research
- Oral-history collection
- Conservation science
- Biodiversity surveys
- Archive research and cataloguing
- Audience and community research
- Evaluation of heritage programmes
Universities and researchers generally need to connect their research to a wider project that conserves heritage, engages communities or improves public access.
The Fund also commissions research and evaluation to understand the condition of the heritage sector and the impact of its funding. This includes work on organisational resilience, heritage skills, participation, climate impact and the needs of historic places.
Major Programs and Initiatives
Heritage Places
Heritage Places supports long-term, place-based investment in areas where heritage can contribute to community pride, regeneration and economic development.
The first group includes nine places across the UK. By March 2025, more than £3.8 million had been awarded for early Heritage Places activities, including work on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street and community-led heritage planning in Greater Grimsby.
Landscape Connections
Landscape Connections is a ten-year initiative expected to invest £150 million in approximately 20 landscape-scale projects.
It supports partnerships involving communities, farmers, landowners and environmental organisations. Projects will seek to restore habitats, support nature recovery and connect more people with culturally and environmentally important landscapes.
Nature Towns and Cities
Nature Towns and Cities is delivered with partners including Natural England and the National Trust.
The Heritage Fund has committed £15 million to help improve historic parks, urban green spaces and access to nature. The programme encourages local authorities, communities and voluntary organisations to work together across entire towns and cities.
Heritage in Need: Places of Worship
This strategic initiative supports churches, chapels, synagogues, gurdwaras and other historic places of worship.
The Fund plans to invest at least £15 million in nationally or regionally significant interventions and anticipated awarding around £85 million for places of worship over three years.
An early investment of £4.68 million supported the Church of England’s Conservation Grants Scheme, including repairs, interior conservation and heritage-craft training.
Archives Revealed
The Fund announced a £5 million partnership investment in Archives Revealed in 2024.
Delivered with The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation, the programme provides scoping and cataloguing grants that help archives make important collections accessible for research and public enjoyment.
Heritage Innovation Fund
The Heritage Innovation Fund helps heritage organisations test and develop new responses to operational and sector-wide challenges.
Its third Grow phase supported 13 organisations with grants of up to £250,000. The programme seeks to improve organisational practice, resilience and innovation across the sector.
Heritage Enterprise
Heritage Enterprise funding helps bring underused, deteriorating or at-risk historic buildings back into sustainable use.
Projects may include commercial activities when these contribute to the financial viability of the heritage asset and create clear public benefits.
Impact and Examples of Work Funded
Overall national impact
Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested approximately £9.5 billion in around 53,000 projects throughout the United Kingdom.
During the first full year of Heritage 2033 grantmaking, the Fund recorded £375 million of investment commitments across 826 projects. This included £214 million associated with potential future delivery-round awards, while funding already awarded totalled £161 million.
The awarded projects included:
- 651 projects in England
- 80 projects in Scotland
- 68 projects in Wales
- 27 projects in Northern Ireland
Jumbo Water Tower
An £8 million grant was awarded to restore and convert the Grade II* listed Jumbo Water Tower in Essex.
The project aims to preserve the prominent historic structure and create a sustainable new use that benefits the surrounding community.
Birnbeck Pier
The Fund awarded £10 million to help save Birnbeck Pier in North Somerset.
The Grade II* listed pier is an important example of Victorian seaside heritage. Its restoration is expected to protect the structure while supporting community and visitor use.
Glasgow Meat Market
A £2.3 million investment is helping protect and return the historic B-listed Glasgow Meat Market to use.
The project forms part of wider efforts to restore a significant industrial site and create benefits for the local area.
Natural History Museum Urban Nature Project
National Lottery funding helped transform five acres of gardens surrounding London’s Natural History Museum into accessible and biologically diverse green space.
The project combines natural heritage, biodiversity research, public learning and urban access to nature.
Redruth Buttermarket
A £3.4 million grant supported the reopening and regeneration of Redruth Buttermarket in Cornwall.
The restored complex now includes entry-level workspaces, larger business units, a food market and an event venue. The project demonstrates how heritage conservation can support local enterprise and economic regeneration.
Peacemakers Museum
Funding helped transform part of the historic gasworks structure at the Gasyard Centre in Derry/Londonderry into the Peacemakers Museum.
The museum preserves and communicates local experiences of conflict, civil rights and peacebuilding.
Staffordshire History Centre
Support from the Fund contributed to new archive facilities and educational spaces at Staffordshire History Centre.
The development gives the public improved access to historical records while supporting school programmes, workshops and community events.
Heritage at risk
Funded work contributed to several properties being removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, including:
- Saltdean Lido
- Beckford’s Tower
- Hopetown Darlington
These examples illustrate how grants can prevent deterioration, restore public access and support sustainable future uses for significant heritage assets.
Investment in disadvantaged areas
In 2024–2025, 27% of grants were made to projects located in the 20% most deprived local-authority areas. Approximately 46% of awards went to projects in the 40% most deprived areas.
Measured by financial value, 43% of the total awarded went to projects in the 40% most deprived local-authority areas.
Conclusion
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the UK’s principal dedicated heritage grantmaker. It supports historic buildings, museums, archives, landscapes, wildlife, community histories and cultural traditions using money raised by National Lottery players.
The Fund began in 1994 as the Heritage Lottery Fund and adopted its current name in 2019. Its legal body is the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, a statutory organisation rather than a privately owned or enterprise foundation.
Its current grant programmes offer funding from £10,000 to £10 million, alongside strategic initiatives addressing landscape recovery, urban nature, places of worship, local regeneration, archive accessibility and organisational innovation.
Its funding is designed to deliver public benefit through:
- Heritage conservation
- Environmental protection
- Community participation
- Education and skills
- Improved accessibility
- Organisational sustainability
- Local economic development
- Research and public knowledge
The Fund does not generally provide unrestricted basic research funding. Research grants are more likely to be supported when research forms part of a wider heritage-conservation, interpretation or public-engagement project.
For an intern, the National Lottery Heritage Fund provides valuable insight into:
- Heritage grantmaking
- Public-sector governance
- Conservation planning
- Application assessment
- Financial due diligence
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Community engagement
- Environmental sustainability
- Equality and accessibility
- Policy research
- Communications
- Public accountability
- Historic-building regeneration
Through its Heritage 2033 strategy, the Fund intends to continue supporting heritage that is valued, cared for and sustained for everyone while responding to climate change, financial pressures, skills shortages and inequalities in access to the UK’s heritage.
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