Heritage Lottery Fund
About the Heritage Lottery Fund
About GreenSpace and the Heritage Lottery Fund
Regional Heritage Lottery Fund offices
Parks for people
Parks for people and GreenSTAT
Funding
Project planning grants
About the Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was set up by Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom. It distributes a share of the money raised by the National Lottery for good causes.
The HLF is the UK’s leading funder of our diverse heritage and the only heritage organisation that operates both across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and funds the entire spread of heritage – including buildings, museums, natural heritage and the heritage of cultural traditions and language. As far as parks and green space are concerned, HLF offers two main streams of funding that cover small to large scale projects: Your Heritage awards grants of £5000 to £50,000 and Parks for People offers grants of £250,000 to £5m. Click here if you would like to find out more about Your Heritage grants. Read on for more information about Parks for People.
To find out about all of the HLF’s grant giving programmes click here.
To download recent HLF publications covering a range of related issues,
click here.
GreenSpace and HLF
The HLF originally funded the Community Network, which is the first free support network for community groups and friends of groups who work with parks and green spaces across the whole of the UK. Its involvement then extended to funding the Park It! events programme where GreenSpace provides support to the organisation of 12 events across the summer around the UK. To find out more about Park It! click here
Parks for People
Funding through the Urban Parks Programme and then Public Parks Initiative has delivered in excess of £450m to parks and green spaces around the UK. Now the new Parks for People funding programme, launched in spring 2006, brings together the monies pledges by HLF over the next three years with an additional £90m from Big Lottery, making it the first joint programme from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund. Parks for People awards grants from £50,000 - £250,000.
High quality local environments can make a real difference to people’s lives, encouraging communities to take pride in their local area. Attractive and safe parks contribute greatly to this, bringing both social and environmental benefits. Their attributes are unique in that they bring together young and old in a space designed by nature catering for any age group. There is a flipside to this however. Run down parks can blight communities, negatively affecting the lives of local people. They can become no-go areas creating communities deprived of the space they need.
The Parks for People programme seeks to restore parks at the heart of thriving local communities, transforming the way people think about themselves, their identity and their heritage.
Parks for People leaflet (pdf 868 KB)
A brief outline of the programme (pdf 112 KB)
Parks for People and GreenSTAT
The park and open space questionnaire, part of the GreenSTAT system, was developed specifically for Parks for People. GreenSTAT, the new visitor evaluation and benchmarking system from GreenSpace, is integrated into the new criteria for the programme to provide both baseline data for the 'audience development plan' and monitoring data for the 'measuring success' elements of HLF project delivery.
As an HLF applicant you can choose to subscribe to the GreenSTAT system for an annual fee, which provides you with the benefits of using the website and online database with its data analysis functions. You can include some of the costs of subscribing to GreenSTAT in your application.
Alternatively you can have free access to a PDF version of the park and open space questionnaire that the GreenSTAT system uses and a copy of the guidance on visitor surveys and the use of this questionnaire are available to help you. Click here to email the GreenSTAT team to request your copy.
Prior to being awarded a grant, applicants to the PFP programme are required to undertake more accurate assessments of visitor numbers. As increasing visitor numbers is an important aim of restoration projects, it is important that reasonably accurate baseline data is collected. The increased number of visitors that is an inevitable consequence of park restorations is one of the most tangible proofs of the value of the project and the HLF investment. One way of accurately estimating visitor numbers is to use automated electronic devices, and to help understand the potential of these devices GreenSpace has produced a useful guide.
Click here to find out more about GreenSTAT.
Funding
Grants of between £250,000 and £5m are available for projects involving urban or rural green spaces designed for informal recreation and enjoyment and will usually be owned and managed by a local authority. Applications are also welcome from other not-for-profit organisations that own public parks. The following criteria need to be met for consideration:
• the community values the park as part of their heritage;
• the park meets local social, economic and environmental needs; and
• the park actively involves local people.
The projects should also:
• increase the range of audiences;
• conserve and improve heritage value;
• increase the range of volunteers involved;
• improve skills and knowledge through training; and
• improve management and maintenance.
Decisions are made using a two-stage application process. Stage one is competitive and has two closing dates each year – March and September.
Funding for parks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will offer the same wider opportunities, and use the same assessment priorities and processes as in England, but only HLF will make the grant awards.
Project Planning Grants
Project planning grants (PPGs) are available to help future Parks for People main grant applications by supporting specific parts of work that will contribute to your project planning process. A PPG should improve your understanding of your park and only form part of your planning work. If HLF agree to give you a project planning grant, this does not mean that they have agreed to fund your final project.
Project planning grant - Application (pdf 441 KB)
Project planning grant - Guidance notes (pdf 452 KB)
You can complete a simple pre-application form as soon as you start thinking about a parks project so that HLF can provide information and advice to assist you.
Pre-application advice form (pdf 421 KB)
Or click here to access the main application form.
Application form (pdf 470 KB)
Guidance Notes (pdf 532 KB)
About GreenSpace and the Heritage Lottery Fund
Regional Heritage Lottery Fund offices
Parks for people
Parks for people and GreenSTAT
Funding
Project planning grants
About the Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was set up by Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom. It distributes a share of the money raised by the National Lottery for good causes.
The HLF is the UK’s leading funder of our diverse heritage and the only heritage organisation that operates both across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and funds the entire spread of heritage – including buildings, museums, natural heritage and the heritage of cultural traditions and language. As far as parks and green space are concerned, HLF offers two main streams of funding that cover small to large scale projects: Your Heritage awards grants of £5000 to £50,000 and Parks for People offers grants of £250,000 to £5m. Click here if you would like to find out more about Your Heritage grants. Read on for more information about Parks for People.
To find out about all of the HLF’s grant giving programmes click here.
To download recent HLF publications covering a range of related issues,
click here.
GreenSpace and HLF
The HLF originally funded the Community Network, which is the first free support network for community groups and friends of groups who work with parks and green spaces across the whole of the UK. Its involvement then extended to funding the Park It! events programme where GreenSpace provides support to the organisation of 12 events across the summer around the UK. To find out more about Park It! click here
Parks for People
Funding through the Urban Parks Programme and then Public Parks Initiative has delivered in excess of £450m to parks and green spaces around the UK. Now the new Parks for People funding programme, launched in spring 2006, brings together the monies pledges by HLF over the next three years with an additional £90m from Big Lottery, making it the first joint programme from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund. Parks for People awards grants from £50,000 - £250,000.
High quality local environments can make a real difference to people’s lives, encouraging communities to take pride in their local area. Attractive and safe parks contribute greatly to this, bringing both social and environmental benefits. Their attributes are unique in that they bring together young and old in a space designed by nature catering for any age group. There is a flipside to this however. Run down parks can blight communities, negatively affecting the lives of local people. They can become no-go areas creating communities deprived of the space they need.
The Parks for People programme seeks to restore parks at the heart of thriving local communities, transforming the way people think about themselves, their identity and their heritage.
Parks for People leaflet (pdf 868 KB)
A brief outline of the programme (pdf 112 KB)
Parks for People and GreenSTAT
The park and open space questionnaire, part of the GreenSTAT system, was developed specifically for Parks for People. GreenSTAT, the new visitor evaluation and benchmarking system from GreenSpace, is integrated into the new criteria for the programme to provide both baseline data for the 'audience development plan' and monitoring data for the 'measuring success' elements of HLF project delivery.
As an HLF applicant you can choose to subscribe to the GreenSTAT system for an annual fee, which provides you with the benefits of using the website and online database with its data analysis functions. You can include some of the costs of subscribing to GreenSTAT in your application.
Alternatively you can have free access to a PDF version of the park and open space questionnaire that the GreenSTAT system uses and a copy of the guidance on visitor surveys and the use of this questionnaire are available to help you. Click here to email the GreenSTAT team to request your copy.
Prior to being awarded a grant, applicants to the PFP programme are required to undertake more accurate assessments of visitor numbers. As increasing visitor numbers is an important aim of restoration projects, it is important that reasonably accurate baseline data is collected. The increased number of visitors that is an inevitable consequence of park restorations is one of the most tangible proofs of the value of the project and the HLF investment. One way of accurately estimating visitor numbers is to use automated electronic devices, and to help understand the potential of these devices GreenSpace has produced a useful guide.
Click here to find out more about GreenSTAT.
Funding
Grants of between £250,000 and £5m are available for projects involving urban or rural green spaces designed for informal recreation and enjoyment and will usually be owned and managed by a local authority. Applications are also welcome from other not-for-profit organisations that own public parks. The following criteria need to be met for consideration:
• the community values the park as part of their heritage;
• the park meets local social, economic and environmental needs; and
• the park actively involves local people.
The projects should also:
• increase the range of audiences;
• conserve and improve heritage value;
• increase the range of volunteers involved;
• improve skills and knowledge through training; and
• improve management and maintenance.
Decisions are made using a two-stage application process. Stage one is competitive and has two closing dates each year – March and September.
Funding for parks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will offer the same wider opportunities, and use the same assessment priorities and processes as in England, but only HLF will make the grant awards.
Project Planning Grants
Project planning grants (PPGs) are available to help future Parks for People main grant applications by supporting specific parts of work that will contribute to your project planning process. A PPG should improve your understanding of your park and only form part of your planning work. If HLF agree to give you a project planning grant, this does not mean that they have agreed to fund your final project.
Project planning grant - Application (pdf 441 KB)
Project planning grant - Guidance notes (pdf 452 KB)
You can complete a simple pre-application form as soon as you start thinking about a parks project so that HLF can provide information and advice to assist you.
Pre-application advice form (pdf 421 KB)
Or click here to access the main application form.
Application form (pdf 470 KB)
Guidance Notes (pdf 532 KB)