This fund aims to support communities to use heritage to shape the future of local places.
Funding is for projects that use historic buildings, places, sites, and stories to help communities build confidence, strengthen local identity, create new relationships, and influence decisions about the places where they live.
Value Notes
21 grants of up to £15,000 are available.
Who Can Apply
Organisations based in England can apply, including constituted community groups, charities, community interest companies, and local authorities.
Groups must be able to provide evidence of their governance arrangements.
The proposed project must be in an IMD 1–3 area in England. This means they must be in one of the following deciles:
- Decile 1 = among the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
- Decile 2 = among the 10–20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
- Decile 3 = among the 20–30% most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
Restrictions
The following are not eligible for funding:
- Individuals.
- Sole traders.
- Projects that are capital works.
- Activities where communities have little or no role in decisions.
- Heritage research with no meaningful community involvement.
- Activities with limited public or community benefit.
- Projects without a clear connection between heritage and place.
- Projects whose main purpose is commercial gain.
Eligible Expenditure
Funding is for projects that use local heritage as a starting point for community discussions, learning, and action about a neighbourhood’s future, and help communities uncover and use stories connected to places, buildings, and sites.
Projects might use community mapping, local research, creative activity, oral histories, workshops or heritage audits to explore what matters locally and inform planning, regeneration or other neighbourhood priorities.
Projects must be co-created, within an area of IMD1-3, and working with underrepresented communities, including:
- Communities experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.
- Communities who are less likely to participate in heritage activity.
- Minority ethnic communities.
- Disabled people.
- Neurodivergent people.
- LGBTQ+ communities.
- Communities experiencing barriers to participation in local planning, regeneration, or civic processes.
Eligible heritage can include buildings, places, and sites that are locally significant; they do not need to be listed by Historic England.
Proposed projects should be completed by 11 August 2028.
How To Apply
The deadline for applications is 27 November 2026 (23:59).
Funding decisions are expected by the end of January 2027.
Guidance notes and an application form are available from the Historic England website.
Completed applications must be submitted by email.