National Lottery Heritage Fund


The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund, distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.

History

The fund's predecessor bodies were the National Land Fund, established in 1946, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, established in 1980. The current body was established as the "Heritage Lottery Fund" in 1994. It was re-branded as the National Lottery Heritage Fund in January 2019.

Activities

The fund's income comes from the National Lottery which is managed by Camelot Group. Its objectives are "to conserve the UK's diverse heritage, to encourage people to be involved in heritage and to widen access and learning". As of 2019, it had awarded £7.9 billion to 43,000 projects.
In January 2019 it simplified its funding schemes under one banner – National Lottery Grants for Heritage – with awards from £3,000 to £5 million. Funding requests for projects over £5 million will be considered as part of two time-limited national competitions to be held in 2020–21 and 2022–23.

Structure

The fund is governed by a board of trustees, whose chair is appointed by the Prime Minister; René Olivieri has been interim chair since January 2020 following Sir Peter Luff's retirement at the end of 2019.
The chief executive since July 2016 is Ros Kerslake OBE, former CEO of The Prince's Regeneration Trust.
The fund's head office is in London, and it has offices elsewhere in the UK.

Major projects

Major projects have included: