The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has launched an innovative new grant scheme aimed at unlocking the economic potential of historic buildings and sites across the UK, Heritage Enterprise (HE).
HE will provide grants of between £100,000 and £5 million to support the repair, adaptation and refurbishment of buildings, turning them into offices, workshops or flats. Community groups are even encouraged to work with private developers to achieve their goals.
With a commitment of at least £25million per annum over the next five years, HLF’s new scheme will empower not-for-profit organisations, such as community groups and social enterprises to work in partnership with the private sector to rescue and return neglected historic buildings to productive use.
Heritage Enterprise is designed to address ‘market failure’ – where historic buildings have failed to attract investment to realise their potential business premium because their cost of repair has meant that it is not commercially viable for private developers to take on. In addition, projects can apply to the HLF for a limited amount of funding that will support capital works whilst a project is being planned such as stabilisation works or ‘meanwhile uses’.
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