Receiving and Repaying your Heritage Recovery and Resilience Loan Guidance and Terms

Before you start your activities 

• You will receive an Investment Notification Letter confirming your Loan award as well as the rest of the Loan Contract

• You will need to submit your Permission to Drawdown form within 2 months of the date of your Investment Notification Letter, and receive confirmation from us that you can drawdown your Loan and begin your activities 

Delivering your activities 

• Once you have received confirmation from us, you can drawdown your Loan within the Availability Period 

• Deliver your Loan supported activities within the Loan Period 

Completing and repaying your Loan 

In order to complete your Loan and fulfil your obligations to us, you must: 

• Repay your Loan within the Loan Period 

• Submit your Loan Completion Report within 3 months of repaying your Loan in full, and 

• Continue to comply with the Loan Contract for the contract period set out in your Investment Notification Letter 

Important Documents 

We recommend that you familiarise yourself with the following documents before you start to deliver your proposals: 

• Loan Contract, which is made up of:  

  • the Investment Notification Letter, signed by both parties – we will send this to you when your Loan is awarded 
  • the Loan Repayment Schedule – we will include this when we send your Investment Notification letter 
  • Debenture Agreement, signed by both parties – unless we confirm that it is not required. We will include this when we send your Investment Notification letter. 
  • any Additional Conditions – these will be listed in your Investment Notification Letter, and
  • the signed Permission to Drawdown form – we will send this to you with your Investment Notification Letter 

• Heritage Recovery and Resilience Loan Application Guidance 

• How to acknowledge your funding   

• How to evaluate your project 

Let us know if you are unsure how these apply to your Loan. 

We also recommend that all those closely involved in the activities funded through your Loan and individuals who have responsibility for ensuring you are able to repay your Loan are familiar with the Application you submitted to us. That could be your Chief Executive and Director of Finance, or their equivalents. 

Loan Expiry Date 

Your Loan Expiry Date is given in your Investment Notification Letter. It is based on your Loan Repayment Schedule which was agreed as part of the process of assessing your Loan application and which helps establish the Loan Period. 

You must repay your Loan by the Loan Expiry Date, and submit your Loan Completion Report within three months of the Loan Expiry Date. 

If your Loan Repayment Schedule and Loan Period becomes unrealistic you can request an extension to the Loan Expiry Date.  

We try to be flexible but cannot guarantee an extension and if you default on your Loan commitment or if we determine that there is significant risk to our Loan investment due to changes within your organisation we may ask you to repay all of your Loan that is outstanding before the end of your Loan Period. 

You can find out more about our minimum requirements for acknowledgement on our website. These may be updated from time to time.  

As well as acknowledging your Loan we expect you to provide special access and/or offers to National Lottery players, on at least an annual basis, over the period that your Loan remains outstanding. For example, we may ask you to participate in a campaign to thank Lottery players, for instance the #ThanksToYou campaign. We will aim to provide advance reasonable notice of any such requests. 

We encourage you to develop innovative and creative offers or promotions designed to thank National Lottery players for their support and to raise awareness of our funding. Examples of these, and other imaginative things that other projects which have received National Lottery funding have done can be found on our website. 

You must acknowledge your Loan publicly as soon as you receive your Loan by displaying the National Lottery acknowledgment logo. You can find out more about how to request acknowledgment materials in the Acknowledgement Form section below.   

You must also make sure you include the National Lottery logo on any information you produce about the activities funded through your Loan, for example, on public consultation or fundraising information or materials. You must also include the logo on all designs or plans you produce, on all specialist reports or surveys, and on all tender documents or job adverts that are funded through your Loan. Read our promotion guidance for more information. 

If you do not comply with our acknowledgment guidelines we reserve the right to request that you repay the outstanding balance on your Loan immediately, to exercise our other rights under the Loan Contract and/or to terminate the Loan Contract.   

If you need any help or have any questions about acknowledging your Loan get in touch with us. 

Loan Publicity  

It is important to publicise your Loan award to local media so that National Lottery players know where their money is being spent. We ask that you keep your Loan confidential until we have discussed and agreed your publicity plans. We will publish the fact that you have been awarded a Loan on our website within 20 days of your Investment Notification Letter.  

We can assist you with queries about publicity and the media.

You can find template press releases on our website, these templates include the correct wording so you will just need to insert your Loan information where required.  

The Loan you will receive is public money from National Lottery players, and as such we are duty-bound to ensure that it is managed in an accountable way, including in relation to the procurement of any goods and services which are funded using the Loan. 

Procedures to recruit consultants and contractors must be fair and open and comply with the relevant equality legislation. 

In all our investment regardless of the level of funding we will ask you to give us details of the procurement (buying), tendering and selection process for all parts of the activities funded through your Loan. If you are unsure about your obligations, we advise you to take professional or legal advice. 

If you have already procured goods, works or services, you will need to tell us how you did it and we must be satisfied that you have met the procedure set out below. 

You must get at least three competitive quotes for all goods, work and services worth £10,000 or more (excluding VAT) that will be funded through your Loan. 

For all goods, works and services worth more than £50,000 (excluding VAT), you must provide proof of competitive tendering procedures. Your proof should be a report on the tenders you have received, together with your decision on which to accept. You must give full reasons if you do not select the lowest appropriate tender. 

A single tender will be accepted in the following circumstances: 

1. The total price of the contract is less than £10,000; 

2. A framework agreement is in place for the supply of goods works or services which has been previously competitively tendered, and the goods works or services are directly relevant to the scope of the activities to be undertaken; 

3. There is a contract in place, which has previously been competitively tendered and it is logical to extend to cover additional activities. In this case you must confirm that: 

a) In the case of capital works the prices of most elements of work including preliminaries, overheads and profits can be directly applied from the existing contract to the new work; 

b) The new work is smaller in scale, and is of a similar type to the main contract work; 

c) The contractor will not claim disruption or prolongation cost to the main contract if the new work is introduced; and

d) The existing contract restricts work being undertaken by others. 

4. The goods, works or services required are unique as set out in a non-branded requirement specification and it is not possible to obtain them from other sources by competitive tender; 

5. You can demonstrate that you have tried to tender the goods, work or services openly and competitively but had not received sufficient interest. The only tender received was submitted by a service provider who believed they were doing so in competition with others.  

6. Emergency work where it can be shown that time taken to obtain tenders would put the proposals and heritage at risk and add considerably to eventual costs; and

7. The company providing the single tender is not connected (through ownership or through family connections) with senior representatives in your organisation i.e. the organisation making the Loan application. 

Your activities may be covered by European Union (EU) procurement rules (or any applicable succeeding legislation for the United Kingdom) if it exceeds the thresholds. This will require that all services for both fees and construction will need to be tendered through Tenders Direct, previously known as Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). 

If you are a non-public body, and your Loan exceeds 50% of the estimated cost of a contract, or your Loan together with other public funding exceeds 50% (e.g. ERDF, local authority, or other lottery distributors) or you are a public body you must adhere to EU Procurement Regulations (or any applicable succeeding legislation for the United Kingdom). If fees for relevant services or works exceed the thresholds on the UK Government website then the contracts will have to be tendered through Tenders Direct, previously known as Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Thresholds are reviewed annually in January. If you are in doubt about what action you need to take you should take professional advice. 

You do not necessarily need to appoint the contractor/supplier/consultant who provides the lowest quote. When deciding who to appoint you should look at the overall value for money the quote presents and the skills, experience and financial viability of the contractor/supplier/consultant. 

Fees for any consultants or other professionals that you recruit for work funded through your Loan should be in line with professional guidelines and be based on a clear written specification. 

Where appropriate we encourage you to work in partnership with others to deliver your proposals. If a partner is providing goods or services paid for through the Loan then you need to tell us why they have been chosen and why an open tender process is not appropriate. We will consider whether this is the best way to deliver your activities and expect you to show value for money and meet any relevant legal requirements. 

Partners are not subcontractors. We expect that you will ensure that they will take on an active role in helping you achieve your overall objectives and will be involved in the proposals as a whole. They should also help you to report on progress, attend regular partnership meetings and support evaluation. 

If any of the contractors / suppliers / consultants you wish to appoint are connected to you, for example close friends or relatives, or if there is any financial link such as ownership of these suppliers you will need to obtain written permission from us first. 

You should ensure any contractor/supplier/consultant or partner who may contribute to the creation of Digital Outputs is aware of our requirement to share these under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence or equivalent while your Loan remains outstanding, and ensure you have agreement for the resulting work to be shared in this way. Where this is not possible, you must seek written agreement to make alternative arrangements with us, for example to use an alternative Open Licence, prior to issuing any contract of work.  

All staff posts must be advertised with the following exceptions: 

• If you have a suitably qualified member of staff on your payroll that you are moving into the post created by your new proposals; or

• If you have a suitably qualified member of staff on your payroll whose hours you are extending so that they can work on new proposals. In this case the Loan can go towards the cost of their additional hours and you will need to tell us about the role they will undertake; 

We may ask to see evidence of the recruitment procedure you followed so keep these records safe.  

If you are moving an existing member of staff into a post created by the new proposals, then we can either pay for the cost of this member of staff, or for the cost of backfilling their post, whichever cost is less (where an employee is assigned to a new job and their position is temporarily filled by another employee). 

If you wish to appoint any new members of staff to deliver your proposals who are connected with any members of staff at your organisation, for example, any close friends, relatives, or ex-members of staff, you will need to obtain written permission from us first. 

All salaries should be based on sector guidelines or similar posts elsewhere. 

We are committed to ensuring that the heritage sector is inclusive and sustainable. You must use the Living Wage rate (and London Living Wage where applicable) for all staff funded through your Loan.  

You will need to fill in a number of online forms to drawdown your Loan, report on progress with the activities supported through your Loan, and repay your Loan.  

The Application form is available online. Subsequent forms and documents will need to be submitted to us by email, following the instructions we will send after your Application is received.  

Supporting documents 

It is important that submitted documents are legible and are given names that usefully describe their contents. Scans should ideally be in monochrome (B&W or grey-scale) as these will be smaller files and allow you to attach more.  

All documents should be in PDF format, with the exception of spreadsheets which should be in their original format. 

Permission to Drawdown

You must submit your Permission to Drawdown form within two months of the date of your Investment Notification Letter. 

The form must be completed with at least two signatures in the Bank Account Details section and a further signature in the Declaration section. We expect one of your signatories to be the same person who authorised your Loan application. The other two must be trustees or senior employees within your organisation. By signing the Declaration, you are confirming that your organisation accepts your Loan and agrees to comply with the Loan Contract. You should keep a signed copy for your records. 

Once we have approved your request we will inform you. If we require anything further from you, then we will hold off approving your request until we have received all the information we need in a form that is satisfactory to us. We will also need to be comfortable that you are fully in compliance with the Loan Contract before we approve your request.  

You will need to provide the following supporting documents with your completed Permission to Drawdown form:  

• A copy of a recent bank statement, paying in slip or cheque (mandatory); 

• Organisation cashflow forecast (mandatory, if changed since Application); 

• Organisation structure (mandatory, if changed since Application); 

• Management structure for Loan supported activities (mandatory); 

• Methods of choosing consultants, contractors and suppliers (mandatory); 

• Timetable for proposals and activities supported through the Loan (mandatory); 

• Confirmation that you’ve secured any additional funding required to deliver your proposals (mandatory, if applicable); 

• How you intend to secure any outstanding funding required to deliver your proposals (mandatory, if applicable); 

• Proof of any necessary statutory permissions or licences (mandatory if applicable). 

Drawing down your Loan

When you are ready to claim your Loan you’ll need to complete and submit a Loan Request Form and provide the supporting documents set out below.  

You have 12 months from the date we give you Permission to Drawdown to claim your Loan. After this period, also known as the Availability Period, you will have forfeit your loan and you will no longer be able to claim it.  

You can only request your full loan amount. 

We aim to release your Loan within 10 working days of receiving a completed Loan Request Form and all the mandatory supporting documents, provided you are not in breach of the Loan Contract. Payment will be made to the bank account identified in your Permission to Drawdown form. 

If you want your Loan to be paid into a different bank account you will need to submit a further Permission to Drawdown form. 

You will need to prepare and include the following supporting documents:  

• Confirm bank details (mandatory); 

• Provide an update on all information provided in the Permission to Drawdown Form (mandatory) 

Loan Monitoring Form 

You will need to submit a Loan Monitoring Form at regular intervals over the Loan Period. The frequency will be agreed as part of the process of giving you Permission to Drawdown your Loan. You should use this form to keep us informed of progress with your loan and the activities supported through your Loan. 

We will monitor how you are using the Loan and progress towards achieving the outcomes, objectives and Appropriate Purposes set out in your Investment Notification Letter. 

We will monitor your repayments to ensure you are meeting your obligations. We will also monitor any changes to your organisation’s finances, management and governance to ensure that you are able to continue to meet your repayment obligations and achieve the objectives for which you took out your Loan. 

You must notify us of any change in your organisational structure, senior management, and governance. If you fail to inform us of any of these changes at the earliest opportunity we may request that you repay your Loan in full before the end of the Loan Period as well as exercise any other rights we have under the Loan Contract and/or terminate the Loan Contract. 

Do not rely on your Loan Monitoring Form to inform us of changes or issues with your Loan or activities supported through your Loan. If you think there could be an issue with your Loan or if there is important positive news about progress on activities funded through your Loan then do let us know as soon as possible.  

When you complete your Loan Monitoring Form, you need to include:  

• Photographs showing the progress of your proposals (mandatory if relevant); 

• A record of activities or events that you have arranged (mandatory); 

• Job selection/appointment details (mandatory if applicable); 

• Procurement reports (mandatory if applicable); 

• Latest company accounts (mandatory if not already provided); 

• Latest management accounts (mandatory if not already provided); 

• Latest organisational structure (mandatory if not already provided); 

• Changes in key personnel (mandatory if applicable); 

• Proposed changes to Loan Repayment Schedule (mandatory if applicable) 

Repaying your Loan 

Your repayment holiday starts on the day we release your Loan and lasts for 12 months. You are not required to make any Loan repayments during your repayment holiday. We will notify you of the exact date when your payment holiday ends. 

We expect you to make repayments according to your Loan Repayment Schedule. 

You must include your Loan reference number as the reference when making Loan repayments. You will find your Loan reference number in your Investment Notification Letter 

We will only accept Loan repayments via bank transfer using the account details that we will provide you when we give you Permission to Drawdown your Loan. 

You must notify us that you have made a Loan repayment by completing a Notice of Loan Repayment, and including the following supporting information:  

• Loan Reference Number (mandatory) 

• Amount of repayment (mandatory) 

• Date you expect the repayment will reach us (mandatory) 

Completion Report

At the end of your Loan Period, when you have finished repaying your Loan, you must submit a Completion Report. We recommend that you keep an up to date and accurate record of the information about your Loan, the activities funded through your Loan and the outcomes and objectives achieved. This will help when completing your Completion Report. 

This form must be submitted within three months of the end of your Loan Period, and should include:  

• Photographic record of your activities and achievements (mandatory); 

• List of Digital Outputs and the web address (URL) of the website or websites where they can be accessed (mandatory); and

• Evaluation Report (mandatory); 

Acknowledgment Form 

There is also an Acknowledgement Form available for requesting funding acknowledgement materials from us, for example plaques, badges and stickers. For more information about acknowledgement read the guidance on our website.    

It is very important that you maintain good communications with us so that any issues that arise which could affect your Loan, your Appropriate Purposes and your ability to repay your Loan can be resolved as quickly as possible. Your failure to communicate issues with us in a timely manner could lead to us requesting the full repayment of our Loan and/or exercising our other rights under the Loan Contract, or terminating the Loan Contract, before the end of the Loan Period. 

Once we have confirmed you have Permission to Drawdown you do not need to submit any further forms until you are ready to claim your Loan. 

However, do always let us know about any events and update us on any successes and good news stories. 

Changes to your proposals and activities  

You cannot change the Appropriate Purposes of your Loan without our prior written agreement. If you want us to consider any changes to your Appropriate Purposes you must send us written details of the reasons for the request in advance of applying any part of the Loan to the changed Appropriate Purposes and explain any effect on: 

• the outcomes you are seeking to achieve through your proposals; 

• the cost of your proposals; and

• your ability to repay your Loan; 

We may then re-assess your proposals or take any other action we consider necessary. We may give permission for the change only if you agree to keep to extra terms and conditions.  

Any changes that are agreed with us must be in writing and should also be reported in your Loan Monitoring Form and/or Completion Report. 

Photographic Record 

We expect you to provide photographs of the activities that where supported through your Loan which you should submit with your Loan Monitoring Forms (where relevant). This photographic record should capture the before, during and after of progress you have made in achieving the objectives for which you took out the Loan.  

You will need to provide a sample of at least five high-resolution images in electronic format (jpegs) with your Loan Completion Report. 

When completing your Loan Monitoring Form and Loan Completion Report you can let us know if materials from your proposals are available on the internet and where they can be found. 

We may make use of your images in publicity material. You give us the right to use those you provide us with at any time, including altering them. You must get all the permissions required for you and us to make use of them before you use them or send them to us. These images, along with other Digital Outputs, should also be shared with an Open Licence (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). If you are not the rights holder, you must ensure you have agreement to share these images under this specified Open Licence. 

You must ensure that you collect appropriate written consent from anyone who appears in these images that they can be reused in relation to publicity and promotional materials, and that they can be shared online under the specified Open Licence. This is particularly important where images include young people or vulnerable adults and where specific permission must be sought in advance. If you require any guidance on this please speak to us. 

If your images are not suitable for sharing under an Open Licence, other arrangements will need to be put in place. Please speak to us as soon as possible. 

Extending your Loan Period or granting more security 

If you do not think that you will be able to fully repay your Loan within the agreed Loan Period as set out in your Investment Notification Letter then get in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can discuss this with you.

You must not grant any additional security over any of your organisation's assets, beyond the Debenture Agreement (if we have requested this from you), and any other existing security which we have approved as part of your Loan application, without our prior written consent. 

We will try to be flexible but cannot guarantee that we will be able to extend your Loan Period. We may need to review your organisation’s most recent financial statements and management information before we can arrive at our decision. 

Taking on further debt liability 

You must not take on any further debt liability beyond the debt liability in the financial statements you provided as part of your Loan application without our prior written consent. We will be as flexible as possible but cannot guarantee we will give consent. We will need to review your organisation’s financial accounts and management information before we can arrive at our decision. 

Changes in cost of your proposals and activities 

Your Investment Notification Letter includes the costs of the proposals and activities that will be funded through your Loan. 

You should report any substantial changes in these costs in advance along with how you intend to make up the difference where the change is an overall increase in costs. If the change is an overall decrease in costs you will need to tell us how you intend to spend the excess Loan if the overall cost becomes less than your Loan amount. We expect and may insist that your spending plans align with the Appropriate Purposes and your objectives for requesting your Loan. 

You must also tell us if you failed to secure the additional funding required to deliver your proposals, how you intent to make up the shortfall and how you intent to proceed if you are unable to make up the shortfall. 

You have up till the end of the Loan Period to fully repay your Loan. You do not need to make any repayments during the 12 months repayment holiday after you receive your Loan.   

We will tell you the length of your Loan Period in your Investment Notification Letter. The Loan Period starts on the date we pay you your Loan. We will notify you in writing of your Loan Period start date, the end of your 12 month repayment holiday and Loan Period end date. 

We have agreed a schedule for making repayments with you. This is your Loan Repayment Schedule. We expect you to make repayments according to your Loan Repayment Schedule. If you do not make payments according to your Loan Repayment Schedule we may request that you repay the outstanding balance on your Loan before the end of your Loan Period and/or may exercise our other rights under the Loan Contract and/or terminate the Loan Contract. 

You must pay a minimum of 7% of you Loan every year from the end of your repayment holiday. If you do not achieve this minimum we may request that you repay the outstanding balance on your Loan before the end of your Loan Period.  

You must make your Loan repayments by direct bank transfer using details we will provide to you in writing when we give you Permission to Drawdown your Loan. 

You must complete and submit a Notice of Loan Repayment at least three working days before you authorise the transfer of funds to us. 

You can repay more than the amount identified in your Loan Repayment Schedule. This will reduce your outstanding balance. It will not reduce the amount of future repayment except where the amount outstanding on your Loan is less than your next scheduled repayment. Once you have fully repaid your Loan you are no longer required to make any future repayments. 

You can make a repayment any time between your last repayment and the date the next repayment is due. For example, if a repayment of £2,500 is due on the 1st January, followed by the next repayment of £2,500 on the 1st April, you can make your repayment due on the 1st April anytime between 2nd January and the 1st April. 

You can make additional early repayments without having to pay any fees or penalties. The additional repayments you make will reduce the outstanding balance on your Loan. Additional payments will not affect your future repayments set out in your Loan Repayment Schedule except where you outstanding balance is less than a future payment. 

We will update and send you a new Loan Repayment Schedule when you make a repayment that is more than the amount due or if you make an additional repayment. 

Once you repay all or part of the Loan, you cannot re-borrow it. 

For the avoidance of doubt, you will not be required to pay interest on amounts you borrow under the Loan. 

Missing your repayment 

It is important that you do not miss any repayments. You should contact us as soon as possible to discuss your options if you think you are likely to miss a future repayment. 

If you miss one repayment you will need to repay the amount you missed as well as the amount due in the next repayment.  

For example, if a repayment of £2,500 is due on the 1st January, followed by the next repayment of £2,500 on the 1st April, failure to repay the amount due of £2,500 on the 1st January would mean you would be required to pay £5,000 (£2,500 + £2,500) on the 1st April. 

Repaying less than the amount due 

If you repay less than the amount due on a given repayment date the amount outstanding will be added to the next repayment. For example, if a repayment of £2,500 is due on the 1st January, followed by the next repayment of £2,500 on the 1st April, if you pay £1,000 on the 1st January you will be required to pay £4,000 on the 1st April. 

Making your repayment late 

If you make a repayment late you will be considered to have missed your repayment. But your next repayment will not reflect your missed payment. For example, if a repayment of £2,500 is due on the 1st January, followed by the next repayment of £2,500 on the 1st April, if you repay £2,500 on the 15th January, you are only required to pay £2,500 on the 1st April.  

Your late repayment on 15th January will be deemed a missed payment. 

If you miss two consecutive repayments, or if in any of the 12 months periods after your payment holiday you miss a total of three repayments or you fail to repay the minimum of 7% of your Loan you will have defaulted on your Loan. 

In determining if you have defaulted we will take extra payments into account only when the reason for default is that you failed to make the minimum annual repayment threshold of 7%. 

Defaulting on your Loan is a type of Loan Risk Event.  

Loan Risk Events 

These are events, instances or actions by you that may lead us to conclude that you are unable to repay your Loan in full over your Loan period due either to increased financial, management or governance risk or that you have used your Loan or any part of it for a purpose that we have not approved. 

If you fail to meet any of the obligations within your Loan Contract this could be considered a Loan Risk Event.  

Other examples of Loan Risk Events include: 

• if it emerges that any information you have provided to us was incorrect or misleading when it was provided; 
• if you have have breached the terms of any of your other borrowings; 
• if you cease or threaten to cease to carry on your operations or substantially the whole of your operations; 
• if any insolvency-related event occurs in relation to you, for example: 
  • any distress, execution, sequestration or other process is levied or enforced upon or against your property or assets; 
  • if any insolvency official (such as a receiver, administrative receiver, receiver and manager, interim receiver, custodian, administrator or similar officer) is appointed in respect of your organisation or over a substantial part of your assets or any third party takes steps to appoint such an officer in respect of your organisation or an encumbrancer takes steps to enforce or enforces its security; 
  • if you stop or suspend payment of any of your debts, or you are likely to be unable to pay your debts as they fall due; or
  • if you commence negotiations or other arrangements with one or more of your creditors with a view to rescheduling any of your debts (because of actual or anticipated financial difficulties); 
• if you demonstrate an intention not to fulfil any of your obligations under the Loan Contract
• it is or becomes unlawful either for us to perform or exercise any of our respective rights and/or obligations under the Loan Contract, or the Loan Contract becomes invalid or unenforceable or ceases to be in full force and effect for any other reason; 
• your assets or any part of them are compulsorily acquired by or by order of any local, national or international authority and in consequence your business or activities are seriously affected; 
• you are under investigation by a regulatory body or the police or we consider for any reason that public funds are at risk; 
• the membership or governance of your organisation changes in a way that we believe would adversely affect your ability to repay your Loan or meet your other obligations under the Loan Contract; 
• you are in material breach of any other agreement (including but not limited to grant and/or other funding agreements) between us; or
• the security granted pursuant to the Debenture Agreement is not (for whatever reason) valid and effective security over your assets. 

If a Loan Risk Event occurs we will undertake a Loan Review Process which could result in one or more of the following, at our discretion: 

• Adjustments to your Loan Repayment Schedule and/or other provisions of the Loan Contract

• Extra-ordinary time limited repayment holiday 

• Immediate repayment of the outstanding balance on your Loan 

• Enforce our security over your assets in accordance with the terms of the Debenture Agreement

• Termination of the Loan Contract

The purpose of a Loan Review Process is to establish if you are still able to manage your Loan and to re-assess the analysis and conclusions we made when we approved your Loan. If we determine that a Loan Review Process is required you will not need to make a repayments until we conclude the process. We will let you know in writing if we determine that a Loan Review Process is needed and what we require from you to support the process including one or more of the following: 

• A meeting with a member of your board of trustees and or the equivalent of your Director of Finance 

• Providing us with your most recent accounts or annual report and financial statements 

• Providing us with any other information we deem relevant to the review process 

By the end of your Loan Period you should have: 

• finished repaying your Loan 

• delivered your Appropriate Purposes and achieved the outcomes and objectives which you set out to achieve through your Loan; 

• acknowledged your Loan and promoted the National Lottery;  

• evaluated your Loan and what you were able to achieve through it and created a report; 

• Supplied high resolution digital photographs and proof of acknowledgment of our funding;

• listed the Digital Outputs you produced and provided the web address (URL) of the website or websites where they can be accessed; and

• Submitted a Loan Completion Report within 3 months of the end of your Loan Period.

We will continue to keep in contact with you at intervals after your Loan Period including through our Customer Surveys. 

Loan Completion Date & Loan Contract Duration  

The formal Loan Completion Date is the date of the letter we will send you following the end of your Loan Period or before if appropriate letting you know that we have received all the necessary documentation to record your Loan as complete.   

Your Investment Notification Letter states the duration that the Loan Contract will apply during which you must maintain your ongoing commitments. These start once we have signed your Permission to Drawdown form and may last for a few months after you have repaid your Loan. 

If Digital outputs (for example the creation of a website) where funded through you Loan we expect these to be available, usable and open until you have fully repaid your Loan. 

A delay in submitting your Loan Completion Report will extend the duration of the Loan Contract. 

1. You must ensure the Loan is compatible with state aid law (meaning the law embodied in Articles 107-109 of section 2, Title VII of the Common Rules on Competition, Taxation and Approximation of Laws of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or any domestic law which replaces such state aid law following the UK’s exit from the European Union. You must maintain appropriate records of compliance with the state aid law and must take all reasonable steps to assist us to comply with state aid law requirements and respond to any investigation(s) instigated by the European Commission (or its domestic successor) into the Project or any equivalent regulatory body as the case may be.  

2. In the event that the Loan is deemed to be unapprovable State Aid, we will require that you repay the entire Loan without delay from the date on which the unlawful aid was at your disposal until the date of its recovery.  

3. We would flag that any payments you make to us in connection with the Loan will need to be calculated and be made without (and free and clear of any deductions for) set-off or counterclaim or withholding or other taxes.  

4. If your breach of the Loan Contract leads to us incurring costs, losses or liabilities, you will need to indemnify us in relation to any such costs, losses or liabilities that we occur as a direct or indirect result of your breach. 

5. Each of us will need to comply with our respective obligations under the Data Protection Legislation, and not to perform our obligations under the Loan Contract in such a way as to cause the other party to breach any of its obligations under the Data Protection Legislation, when processing any personal data received from the other party.  

6. You agree that you shall not at any time disclose to any person any confidential information obtained in relation to the Loan Contract concerning our activities or stakeholders, except (a) with our prior written consent, (b) to your employees, officers, sub-contractors or advisers on a ‘need-to-know’ basis and to the extent that each such recipient is subject to confidentiality obligations, or (c) as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority. 

7. You are not allowed to assign or transfer any of your rights and obligations under the Loan Contract without our prior written consent. We may at any time assign or transfer any of our rights and obligations under the Loan Contract to any other person (but we will aim to notify you to the extent practicable). 

8. If you wish to make an amendment or waiver of any part of the Loan Contract, this will only be effective if it is in writing and signed by each of us. 

9. If we delay or fail to exercise any of our rights or remedies under the Loan Contract, this shall be interpreted as a waiver by us of such rights or remedies. 

10. Any provision of the Loan Contract that is expressly, or by implication, intended to have effect after termination shall continue in force for the intended period.   

11. A person who is not a party to the Loan Contract has no right under the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enjoy or enforce any benefit under it. 

12. Any notice given pursuant to the Loan Contract shall be in writing, and shall be sufficiently given and deemed to be received: if by hand, on delivery; if by pre-paid first-class post, on the Business Day after posting; and if by email, the time the email is sent if sent to the correct email address provided no notice of delivery failure is received.  

13. The Loan Contract may be executed in any number of counterparts, and this has the same effect as if the signatures on the counterparts were on a single copy of the Loan Contract. 

14. The Loan Contract and all non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with it shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. 

15. We will continue to meet our obligations under the Loan Contract as long as the National Lottery continues to operate under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 (as amended from time to time), and enough funds are made available to us under the Act. 

16. We may amend these Heritage Recovery and Resilience Loans Guidance and Terms for time to time

Download a draft Debenture Agreement

We have specific requirements for digital outputs produced with Loan investment from National Lottery Heritage Fund, which are set out on our website. We are using the term ‘digital output’ to cover anything you create in your Project in a digital format which is designed to give access to heritage and/or to help people engage with and learn about heritage. For example, this includes photographs, text, software, web and app content, databases, 3D models, sound and video recordings. 

Items created in the management of the project, for example emails between team members and records of meetings, are not included in the requirement. 

Up till Loan Completion Date all digital outputs must be:  

• ‘available’ (i.e. the outputs are freely available online; copies of the digital files are held securely and you can give access to these on demand); 

• ‘usable’ (the outputs function as intended and are kept up-to-date); and

• open’ (digital outputs are licensed for use by others under the Creative Commons ‘Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)   licence, with the exception of code and metadata, which should be released under a Public Domain Dedication, unless we have agreed otherwise. 

We expect:  

• websites to meet at least W3C Single A accessibility standard;  

• you to use open data, software and services where possible; 

• you to contribute digital outputs to appropriate heritage collections and open knowledge projects.  

• Additional Conditions - any additional conditions set out in your Investment Notification Letter.
• Application - your completed Application form and any documents or information you send us to support your request for a Loan. 
• Application guidance - the document setting out the scope of the Heritage Recovery and Resilient Loan programme and how to apply.
• Appropriate Purposes - summary of the activities and proposals supported through your Loan and the outcomes and objectives you seek to achieve, as set out in your Investment Notification Letter.
• Availability Period - the time period during which you can request to drawdown your Loan, beginning from the date that we give you Permission to Drawdown and ending on the date falling 12 months thereafter. 
• Completion Report - a report to be provided following the Loan Expiry Date telling us how you managed your Loan including your repayments and how you achieved your Appropriate Purposes.
• Data Protection Legislation - the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679); the Data Protection Act 2018; and all other applicable laws and regulations relating to the processing of personal data and/or governing individuals’ rights to privacy, in each case as amended or updated from time to time. 
• Debenture Agreement - a debenture dated on or about the date of the Investment Notification Letter pursuant to which you provide security over all of your assets in our favour, by way of a secured legal charge, in relation to your obligations under the Loan Contract.
• Digital Output - has the meaning given in Appendix A (Digital Outputs). 
• Evaluation Report - a report setting out how well you met the objectives for which you took out the Loan. 
• Funder - us, being the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund who administer the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
• Investment Notification Letter - the letter that formally advises you of the award of your Loan.
• Loan - the amount we have awarded you set out in your Investment Notification Letter.
• Loan Completion Date - the date of the letter we send you letting you know that the Loan is recorded as complete. This will be after the date you have completed the activities funded through your loan and after you have fully repaid your loan.
• Loan Contract - made up of the following documents and their appendices:

  • the Investment Notification Letter;

  • the Loan Repayment Schedule;

  • these Receiving and Repaying your Heritage Recovery and Resilience Guidance and Terms;

  • the Debenture Agreement, unless we notify you that it is not required;

  • any Additional Conditions; and

  • the signed Permission to Drawdown form 

• Loan Expiry Date - the date by which you must have fully repaid your Loan and supplied your Loan Completion Report as set out in your Investment Notification Letter and if amended thereafter notified to you in writing.
• Loan Period - the period from the date we pay you your Loan till the date you expect to fully repay your Loan as set out in your Loan Repayment Schedule.
• Loan Repayment Schedule - this is the plan setting the dates you intend to make repayment towards your loan and the amount of each repayment over the loan period.
• Loan Risk Event - an event as described in the section on Missed or late repayments and other Loan Risk Events.
• Investment Notification Letter - the letter that formally advises you of the award of your Loan.
• Open Licence - an open licence grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions. There are various open licences available, but the default open licence required is the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, or equivalent.  
• Outcomes - we describe the difference we want to make with our funding as outcomes. Outcomes are changes, impacts or benefits that happen as a direct result of your activities.
• Permission to Drawdown - this is our confirmation to you that you are permitted to send us a request to drawdown the Loan.  
• Property - land, buildings, heritage items or intellectual Property which will benefit from your Loan.
• Receiving and Repaying your Heritage Recovery and Resilience Loan Guidance and Terms - these guidance and terms set out herein.  

We, us, our – means the Funder 

You, your – means the Loan Recipient/Borrower