Over the summer, more than 4,400 people had their say on our ambitious new strategy through surveys, conversations, workshops and research commissioned from consultants BritainThinks. 

This has provided us with a clear picture of the views and first-hand experiences of a representative cross section of the public and the breadth of the UK heritage sector.

The responses exceeded our expectations in both number and the passion they demonstrated.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund

What you told us

Key themes

Four themes emerged strongly from our questions about what you want us to prioritise in our funding:  

• Conserving, protecting and saving heritage, ensuring it is relevant and adaptable for current and future generations. 
• Responding to the climate and nature crises and championing environmental sustainability across all types of heritage. Helping heritage adapt to and mitigate the impacts of the crises and supporting nature’s recovery. 
• Inclusion, diversity and accessibility across all types of heritage, workforce, leadership and audiences. 
• Financial resilience and the need for longer term funding and income diversification. 

Our role

You told us that we could do even more to support the UK’s heritage sector by:

• facilitating networking, collaboration and multi-agency partnerships
• creating a system to share knowledge and best practice between organisations and projects
• supporting capacity building, volunteer and staff training and development, as well as longer-term funding

We are committed to ensuring our vision is grounded in the views and experiences of those who run and benefit from the heritage projects we fund.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund

How you challenged us

When we asked you about our six draft objectives, you were broadly supportive, but felt strongly that:

• the climate and nature crises, and environmental sustainability more broadly, were missing
• ‘heritage is for everyone’ was not as strong as our current position for heritage to be ‘inclusive’
• the objectives needed to be more assertive, clearer and we should simplify objectives that overlapped

Invaluable insight

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “We are grateful to everyone who shared their opinions with us. The responses exceeded our expectations in both number and the passion they demonstrated.

“It has reinforced what a powerful connection we all have to heritage and why the work we all do is so important.

“We’ve heard what you told us and are using your invaluable insight to shape our new strategy. We are committed to ensuring our vision is grounded in the views and experiences of those who run and benefit from the heritage projects we fund.”

What happens next

We will launch our new 10-year strategy early next year. It will outline our vision for the UK’s heritage over the next decade.

Further detail about what we’ll fund and how we’ll target our investments will come in spring 2023 when we launch our first three-year delivery plan.

In the meantime, you should continue to apply for funding using our current guidance and outcomes.

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