Heritage Lottery Fund

About Heritage Lottery Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder of heritage in the UK. Using money raised by National Lottery players, it distributes grants from £10,000 to £10 million to support projects that connect people and communities with heritage across the UK. It also distributes heritage funding on behalf of the UK and devolved governments.

Its remit is broad: heritage can include historic buildings, landscapes, nature, collections, traditions, stories, industrial heritage and more. The organisation positions heritage as something that should be valued, cared for and passed on to future generations, and says its funding is intended to bring people together, build pride in place and support local economies.

Core Values

• Heritage for everyone: The organisation’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. It emphasises inclusion, access and participation across its funding decisions.
• Environmental sustainability: Protecting the environment is one of its four investment principles, with support for nature recovery, climate adaptation and lower-impact projects.
• Long-term impact: Heritage 2033 reflects a longer-term approach, investing in places as well as individual projects to create lasting benefits for people, communities and the natural environment.
• Partnership and collaboration: The Fund highlights collaboration with governments, local authorities, statutory agencies and sector partners as central to achieving greater impact.

Unique Aspects

• Largest UK heritage funder: It describes itself as the largest funder for the UK's heritage and says it has awarded over £9.9 billion since 1994 to more than 54,000 projects.
• National Lottery-backed: Its work is funded by National Lottery players, and it distributes 20% of Good Causes income raised by National Lottery players.
• UK-wide local decision-making: It has teams across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with many grant decisions made locally by people who live and work in the communities they fund.
• Independent public body: It is a non-departmental public body accountable to Parliament via DCMS, while stating that its decisions on individual applications and policies are independent of government.
• Strategic partnerships at scale: Recent initiatives include Nature Towns and Cities with Natural England and the National Trust, and a partnership with the Welsh Government since 2020 to deliver the Nature Networks Fund.