Grants of Up to £20,000 available under AHF Grant Programmes-Northern Ireland (UK)

Deadline: 4-Aug-23

The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is inviting applications to help communities find enterprising ways to revitalise the old buildings they love.

The fund support charities and social enterprises in developing sustainable new uses for historic buildings that are redundant or under-used. They aim to both enable the conservation of historic buildings and also to help groups own and manage historic buildings for the long-term.

The development work that they fund enables groups to test out ideas for re-using a building and to prepare detailed plans to the point of being ready to commence the works. In Northern Ireland, projects may be located anywhere – in cities, towns or rural areas.

Funding Information

• Project Viability Grant or Village Catalyst Grant (PVG)
  • Maximum £10,000
  • Project Viability Grants (PVG) are to fund studies to look at potential uses for a building and at its current condition, and produce a Viability Report to a standard template. Successful completion of this will be used to judge whether applicants can then apply for the AHF’s Project Development Grant funding, and can be used to secure further funding elsewhere. This grant is administered on a rolling basis. They aim to let you know whether you have been successful within six weeks.
• Project Development Grant (PDG)
  • Maximum £20,000
  • The Project Development Grant (PDG) scheme is intended to assist an organisation to cover some of the costs of developing and co-ordinating a project and taking it towards the start of work on site.

Eligible Projects

• Your project involves an historic building, which they define as:
  • Unlisted but in a Conservation Area and/or
  • Highly valued by the local community for its demonstrable historic interest;
• Your project involves a change of primary use and/or a change of ownership;
• Your project is being led by a not-for-private-profit organisation

Eligibility Criteria

• Wherever you are in the UK, your organisation must be one of the following not-for-private-profit organisations or lowest tiers of local government:
  • Unincorporated organisations that are intending to incorporate (for Project Viability Grants only)
  • Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs or SCIOs)
  • Charitable Companies Limited by Guarantee
  • Charitable Community Benefit Societies
  • Community Benefit Societies
  • Not-for-private-profit Companies Limited by Guarantee
  • Community Interest Companies (CICs) Limited by Guarantee
  • Parish and Town Councils

Ineligible

They will not generally fund:

• Private individuals
• Local authorities and other public sector bodies other than Parish and Town Councils (unless applying on behalf of an organisation still in formation)
• Universities, colleges and other mainstream educational institutions including independent schools
• For-profit companies, unless in a partnership led by a not-for-profit organisation
• Unincorporated organisations (e.g. charitable trusts and associations) that are not intending to incorporate
• Organisations with fewer than three Trustees or Directors. If there are only three Trustees/Directors, none of these should be spouses or otherwise related to one another.
• Limited liability partnerships
• Churches or other places of worship, where the building or the space within the building you are enquiring about will be used as an active place of religious worship – defined as hosting regular religious services or religion-based activities such as prayer or religious study.

Ineligible Projects

• Work that has started before a decision to award a grant
  • On site capital works
  • Repair costs that are not part of a larger scheme to find a new sustainable use
  • Ongoing maintenance costs

For more information, visit Architectural Heritage Fund.