Heritage has a unique ability to bring people together and to create better places to live, work and visit. It gives us the space to understand ourselves and our identities.

As the UK’s largest funder of heritage, it’s important that we understand and collaborate with you – those who know the sector and the people it serves – on how we continue to invest in heritage and ensure it is maintained and valued now and in the future.

Listening and responding

It’s one of the reasons we launched our research initiative, UK Heritage Pulse. We want to ensure that, in an uncertain and rapidly changing environment, we have regular feedback from across heritage and our wider networks to inform what we do.

54% of respondents to our first survey fed back a desire for more support to innovate and test new approaches. Responding to this – and our engagement with heritage organisations across the UK – we launched our pilot initiative, the Heritage Innovation Fund. It will support organisations to explore, test and grow ideas with the potential to shape the future of the heritage workforce.

I’ve seen and heard about the positive impact that heritage continues to have. But you’ve also told me about the challenges you are currently facing.

I’ve also been listening to what you’ve told me directly. As I visit projects and meet the people who run and benefit from them, I’ve seen and heard about the positive impact that heritage continues to have. But you’ve also told me about the challenges you are currently facing.

So, this week we’re launching a refreshed resilience and recovery support offer through our National Lottery Grants for Heritage. Applications could include:

• specialist help to re-appraise business plans to recover from the effects of the pandemic and to negotiate a changed economic environment
• building capacity to fundraise and attract new audiences
• reviewing governance structures
• creating networks to share knowledge and resources 

And we will continue to be as flexible as we can with requested changes to project scope or cost.

At the Heritage Fund, we are here to work with applicants, grantees and partners to make sure we offer the best support to heritage. Our staff across the UK can advise you on concerns about the viability of an existing project, or the future of a heritage site, collection, asset or activity.

Looking to the future

Today we are asking for your input to shape our new 10-year strategy. I want us to set out an ambitious vision for the future of the UK’s heritage, together.

It feels like the right time to review the vision we set out in our 2019 Strategic Funding Framework, to check our purpose and ask whether our priorities and investment approach are the right ones for heritage and people for the future.

Over the past 27 years, we’ve invested in tens of thousands of heritage projects – through money raised by National Lottery players, and more recently, also on behalf of governments. These projects stretch the length and breadth of the UK, from Orkney and Northern Ireland’s Mourne coast to Pembrokeshire and the white cliffs of Dover. And they encompass the richness and variety of heritage itself, from historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more.

Our funding, the expertise of our project support consultants, and our capacity and confidence-raising campaigns (such as Digital Skills for Heritage), have made it possible for organisations small and large to protect and preserve the past for future generations. Our partnerships have allowed us to leverage the reach and expertise of other organisations to make an even bigger impact than we could on our own – from improving access to nature to creating new career opportunities.

Collectively we have battled unprecedented times brought by the pandemic, and we are still dealing with the longer-term effects, compounded by the economic and environmental crises.

It feels like the right time to review the vision we set out in our 2019 Strategic Funding Framework, to check our purpose and ask whether our priorities and investment approach are the right ones for heritage and people for the future.

Have your say

To do that, we need to hear from you. I also encourage you to ask the people you support to engage with heritage to have their say, too.

What are the changes to heritage you want to see in the next decade? What role can we play in that change – through funding and beyond? Are there particular heritage challenges or projects we should direct targeted support to? How should our investment be shared between previously funded projects, new projects and working in partnership with other organisations? How should we prioritise our investment in places across the UK? How can we strengthen our approach to environmental sustainability?

Help us shape how we’ll work together in the years ahead and the difference we can make for the UK’s rich and diverse heritage.

Our online forms are open until midday on Monday 5 September for you to share your opinions.

Help us shape how we’ll work together in the years ahead and the difference we can make for the UK’s rich and diverse heritage. We want to ensure all that we value from the past is enriched and sustained for the future.