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Can I Get Help With a Listed Building?

If you own or manage a listed building, and have to deal with the maintenance and difficult situations a listed building can sometimes throw at you. You may wonder if you can get help with the ongoing costs of the property.

In this post, we’ll look at exactly that.

Grants

There are multiple categories of grants available for owners and managers to get help with listed buildings.

Repair Grants

Grants are available to help with the repair and conservation of listed buildings, monuments, parks and gardens.

These repair grants are intended for use by some of the most at-risk listed buildings.

There is a tool to search these buildings available at Heritage at Risk Register.

This scheme was previously known as the Grants for Historic Buildings, Monuments and Designed Landscapes.

To apply for this scheme, you should contact Historic England at customers@HistoricEngland.org.uk

Applicants can apply for these Grants throughout the year. A decision should be made on the award of a Grant within 6 months.

The best advice is to make contact with Historic England early in the planning stage of the project so as to not delay work.

Once you have applied for the repair grant, it will be assessed against the success criteria.

What if I’m Successful?

If you are successful in your Grant application you will then be invited to sign a contract. The contract sets in stone the conditions of the grant and is a legally binding commitment to carry out the work as agreed.

All grant recipients are required to follow the Procurement Regulations.

Procurement Regulations are a set of rules that are in place to ensure that public money is spent in an open and transparent manner.

You will be accountable for some of the Grant conditions for some time after the work is completed. For example, if you have received help with a listed building. Public access to the building is a usual condition of the Grant.

National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery offers various Grants to fund heritage projects in the UK.

The aim is that these investments will help preserve Heritage assets and promote positive and lasting change now and in the future.

Grant values range between £3,000 and Millions of pounds depending on the scheme applied for.

These Grants are a great option for getting help with a listed building.

Guidance is similar to the Historic England Grants. In that, you can apply throughout the year and that work must not start before a decision has been made. So get advice and get that planning application in early.

The heritage fund grants can include mandatory contributions from the applicant.

For example, applications of £100,000 to £250,000 require a contribution of 5% of the applicant towards the project costs.

Assessment Process

The heritage fund advises that they hope to make decisions on applications within 8 weeks. However, some applications may take longer.

Decisions are made at a monthly meeting by the director of the area.

Factors considered in the application include:

Whether the project is in the UK
The needs and opportunities the project will address
Value for money
Potential risk to the success of the project
How project outcomes will be sustained
The approach to environmental sustainability

Help With Planning

As a Heritage Assets expert, we can help with the Heritage work required.

Just get in touch via email and we can talk over your situation and plan the best way forward.

As always, thanks for reading.

Michelle Hill MRTPI

As a leading planning consultant I can help with the topics covered in this post. Contact me and I can find you a solution to your planning problem.

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