Posted on 15th Jun
Historic England has launched a second emergency fund to support the heritage sector’s recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The fund, which will be up to £3 million, will award grants to those who care for some of England’s most significant historic sites in the East Midlands to help fund urgent maintenance, repairs and investigations where support is most needed.
The business generated will help heritage specialists, whose livelihoods have been severely affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Grants of up to £25,000 will be offered to fix urgent problems at locally-cherished historic buildings and sites that are normally visited by the public, so that they can reopen as quickly as possible, subject to Covid-19 restrictions, and thrive once again.
The funding can be used to address problems such as damaged roofs, masonry and windows, to hire scaffolding to prevent structural collapse, or commission surveys necessary to inform urgent repairs.
Historic England, which is responsible for protecting and championing the nation’s historic environment, has developed the Covid-19 Heritage at Risk Response Fund following its own comprehensive survey of heritage organisations.
The findings revealed the serious impact of coronavirus on the sector, and loss or postponement of work was the most common reported effect of the outbreak. 80 per cent of respondents in the East Midlands said they had lost business or work had been postponed.
Those hardest hit were craft workers, like stonemasons and glaziers, and professionals such as architects and surveyors. In the East Midlands 25 per cent of craftspeople and 50 per cent of professionals predicted that their businesses will fail within three months without any additional support. The fund will generate work for these professionals from early autumn and develop a pipeline of projects.
Applicants are invited to apply for grants of up to £25,000 towards a maximum project size of £30,000 for urgent minor repairs, maintenance or development works, which must be started before 31st October. The deadline for expressions of interest is midnight on 28th June. Those successful at this stage will be informed by 27th July and invited to submit a full application by 31st August.
More information on eligibility and how to apply is at https://historicengland.org.uk/covid-19-fund/
This is the second emergency fund from Historic England in response to Covid-19 and comes soon after a £1.8 million fund that is supporting 70 organisations to weather the crisis and aid recovery. Both funds are designed to complement the measures already put in place by the Government, as well as the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s recently announced £50 million emergency fund.
