Page last updated: 31 May 2023

Since we were established in 1994, we have invested £8.8billion in more than 51,000 projects across the UK. This includes money raised by National Lottery players and – more recently – funding we've distributed on behalf of governments across the UK.

We have awarded:

• £3.2bn to more than 10,200 area, building and monument projects
• £590million to more than 27,600 community and cultural heritage projects
• over £610m to more than 1,500 industrial, maritime and transport projects
• £2bn to 4,700 land, nature and biodiversity projects
• over £2.3bn to 5,800 museum, library, archive and collection-based projects

Our COVID-19 support

From the start of the pandemic, until the end of the 2022–2023 financial year, we will have invested around £675m into the heritage sector. That’s about £100m more than we would have invested in the same period normally.

We have also provided expertise and advice on adapting to the pandemic.

Our distribution of funds in the 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 financial years benefited more than 3,500 heritage projects and included:

• £300m through National Lottery Grants for Heritage
• £50m Heritage Emergency Fund, made possible thanks to National Lottery players
• more than £155m Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• £19 million Heritage Capital Kickstart Fund on behalf of DCMS
• £75.6m Green Recovery Challenge Fund for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
• more than £13m Welsh Government funding
• more than £8m from the Department of Communities in Northern Ireland

In addition, we:

• distributed £3.5m of targeted support to recipients in our Areas of Focus, deprived local authority areas that have received least funding from us
• offered interest-free loans between £50,000-£250,000 up to a total of £1.2m 
• accelerated the provision of our £4.1m Digital Skills for Heritage initiative
• rolled out a £6m series of business support and enterprise development programmes to support sector resilience
• committed £2m to fund our network of ROSS consultants, who provide technical expertise and advice such as mentoring, monitoring and help with business plans
• continued to support more than 2,500 projects in development and delivery, including £46m of grant increases

Thanks to National Lottery players

We couldn’t do all this without those who play The National Lottery. Every week National Lottery players raise £30m for good causes.

Since 1994, over £47bn has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 240 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.