1.  This memorandum is provided at the request of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to inform its inquiry into the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). It addresses the four issues to which the Clerk of the Committee drew attention: the role of our organisation and its relationship to the HLF, the distribution of funds by the HLF, the impact of the Fund and any proposals or recommendations for the future.

THE ROLE OF OUR SERVICE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE HLF

  2.  Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) is an executive agency within the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DOENI). The corporate aim of EHS is "to protect and conserve the natural and built environment and to promote its appreciation for the benefit of present and future generations". The Service adopts a holistic approach to its responsibilities which extend over the built and natural heritage and environmental protection.

  3.  The Service's legislative framework includes the following Acts and Orders:

—  The Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995;

—  The Planning (NI) Order 1991, for listed buildings and Conservation Areas;

—  The Amenity Lands Act (NI) 1985;

—  The Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (NI) Order 1985 (amended 1989);

—  The Wildlife (NI) Order 1985;

—  The Access to the Countryside (NI) Order 1983.

  4.  The Service's functions which are of particular relevance to the HLF are the identification and protection of historic monuments and buildings by survey, scheduling, listing and the provision of grant-aid, the identification and protection of habitats and species, and grant-aid for access and voluntary bodies. The Service also owns and manages a wide range of properties embracing historic monuments, nature reserves and country parks.

  5.  EHS acts as an adviser to the HLF on all aspects of applications relating to the built and natural heritage in Northern Ireland. This work is undertaken under the HLF Adviser Conditions of Appointment and during the year from April 1997 to March 1998 EHS responded to 29 requests for specialist advice. The Service has worked closely with HLF officials when providing this input and we believe that both the content and the presentation of our advice are valued highly by HLF.

  6.  EHS is theoretically entitled to apply for HLF funding. While no application has yet been submitted, we are considering doing so in the near future, to establish the partnership relationship, to test the process and tease out any problems which might arise.

  7.  EHS has an important role in providing partnership funding for others' applications. This is particularly important for archaeological sites and landscapes (though some of the listed buildings aided by HLF would not attract EHS grant), a point to which we return below (14, 15).

THE DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS BY THE HLF AND ITS CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES

  8.  EHS welcomes the wider powers available to the HLF under the National Heritage Act 1997. Careful comparison between EHS and HLF criteria for grant eligibility on the Natural Heritage side indicates that the HLF can consider a wider range of schemes than EHS can entertain. This is helpful in that the HLF can, potentially, target areas which would otherwise have difficulty in attracting grant. On the Built Heritage side the HLF criteria allow applications for items like organs and memorials and B grade listed buildings which EHS cannot usually grant-aid.

  9.  The widening of powers to consider an element of revenue funding is very welcome as in Northern Ireland there is a serious problem of a mismatch between sources of capital funding for projects and a scarcity of revenue funding. The potential extension of grant to private owners of land and buildings is also welcome, though it is recognised that the HLF will have to be very selective in this area.

  10.  EHS is broadly content with the criteria and procedures adopted by the HLF. Some of the grant conditions may be difficult to comply with, but we recognise that the protection of public money is vitally important. The application process is fairly demanding and we believe that some of the smaller and perhaps more needy schemes may not have been put forward in the past. The new, two-stage process is, however, welcome and the delegation of decisions on smaller grants to regional committees may help to overcome this problem.

  11.  When selecting projects the HLF has usually agreed with EHS advice, but in a few cases projects which we considered as worthy of funding have been rejected. It is possible that such instances will increase as the range of applicants widens and the available finance decreases. In these cases it would be very helpful if EHS could receive a copy of the letter of rejection which gives the reasons why the application has been unsuccessful. This would give us insight into the HLF criteria and help us to refine our expert advice.

THE IMPACT OF THE HLF ON THE HERITAGE SECTOR WITH WHICH EHS IS CONCERNED

  12.  The Northern Ireland share of HLF resources in a UK context is fairly small to date. In the preparatory discussions with the NHMF before the setting up of the HLF, EHS staff did point to several factors which, it was anticipated, could result in a slow build-up of applications. These include the large public sector, the limited local government sector, the very small number of voluntary bodies and trusts and social attitudes which are potentially hostile to the concept of a lottery. It is worth noting that the number of historic building trusts has increased in recent years from 2 to 12, so a change is clearly under way.

  13.  The impact of the HLF on some heritage sectors had been greater than on others. Historic buildings have benefited most, with some 35 grants from the Northern Ireland total of 60 since 1995. The biggest single grant of over £2 million was made to Belfast City Council towards the work on St George's Market. This scheme will have a major social, economic and regeneration impact in a previously badly run-down area. Eighteen churches (embracing Church of Ireland, Catholic and Presbyterian churches) have benefited from sums of between £41,000 and £978,000, with £1.5 million going to environmental works at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast and £94,000 to a church organ. The moving of two vernacular buildings to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum was funded and the restoration of a rural clachan (small nucleated settlement) in South Down was aided. All these schemes are ones which EHS could not have grant-aided or to which it could only have contributed a small amount, so clearly the HLF impact has been very valuable.

  14.  Other heritage sectors have benefited much less. One scheduled monument and one archaeological landscape, two historic gardens, and three industrial heritage structures have received grant. The low numbers in these areas in not an indication of any lack of need; rather it probably reflects a shortage of bodies in a position to take a lead in pursuing applications. EHS foresees further development of charitable trusts and other conservation groups, as well as some growing local authority interest, which should generate more demand in these areas of the heritage in the future.

  15.  The DOENI's advisory Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC) comments that only about 10 per cent of HLF grants refer to the natural heritage field (to March 1996) compared with over 60 per cent for the built heritage. Council nevertheless welcomes HLF support for a small number of significant natural heritage projects. The grant of £213,000 to the Cuilcagh upland peatland project in Fermanagh was very welcome, involving the formation of a very successful partnership to advance the work. The grant of £115,000 for land purchase in Rathlin Island was also very welcome as the island is under considerable pressure. EHS and CNCC hope very much that good applications for natural heritage projects will increase and EHS looks forward to giving active support, both as advisers and, on occasion, as joint funders.

  16.  The various targeted initiatives, like the Historic Parks and Heritage Townscapes schemes, are potentially very helpful and point to one possible future direction for the HLF. There may be problems ahead in Northern Ireland, arising from a shortage of conservation expertise and a lack of partnership funding, in pursuing the Townscapes initiative too far and too quickly, but its potential benefits are great. The DOENI's advisory body, the Historic Buildings Council (HBC) has identified serious problems in Northern Ireland's 53 Conservation Areas and the HLF could potentially help significantly.

PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

  17.  Several current HLF initiatives are very welcome and are likely to have a beneficial effect in the future. The creation of a Northern Ireland team and the proposed opening of a regional office for Northern Ireland are helpful developments, as is the appointing of an advisory body for smaller grant applications in Northern Ireland (the "Country Committee" proposal). There has, undoubtedly, been a feeling of isolation from the HLF London office, and this is in marked contrast to the local operation of the NI Arts Council, the NI Sports Council and the NI Charities Board. A local presence should have the effect of making the HLF schemes and procedures more accessible to potential applicants here.

  18.  HLF's desire to attract more applications for smaller local community schemes is also welcome in a Northern Ireland context. EHS awaits with interest news of whether the pilot schemes "Awards for All" and the "Local Heritage Initiative" programme will be extended throughout the UK.

  19.  EHS looks forward to working with HLF, its regional team and the NI "Country Committee", in encouraging applications from areas of the heritage which have so far been under-represented. These could include the following:

—  enhancing the landscape and nature conservation projects;

—  projects to protect and promote the industrial heritage;

—  schemes to conserve and provide access to historic monuments;

—  projects to record, conserve and make public important historic parks and gardens;

—  vernacular architecture conservation initiatives;

—  projects to make available heritage information;

—  continuing, selective historic buildings schemes; and

—  the heritage townscapes initiative.

  20.  A closer focus on Northern Ireland could identify regional imbalances in the distribution of grants to date and the "Country Committee" and regional office could seek to encourage applications to redress the balance.

  21.  The new HLF powers under the National Heritage Act 1997 and the Secretary of State's 1998 directions, including educational projects, limited revenue funding related to HLF-funded works, funding management plans and certain costs of archaeological excavation arising from HLF-funded schemes, will all help to spread the benefits of lottery funding more widely in Northern Ireland as elsewhere.

  22.  The key to successful distribution and diversification of the HLF impact in Northern Ireland is education: making information and advice available and accessible, application procedures manageable and the results of grants widely known. The changes ahead in the government of Northern Ireland will provide a new constituency for the HLF to cultivate and they may generate new pressures on the HLF as the new arrangements unfold.

July 1998