Architectural Heritage Fund: Loans & Social Investment Packages

Overview

What can their funds be used for?

Loans can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Towards the cost of a capital project.
• To bridge funding gaps until further funding becomes available.
• To help manage cashflow needs.
• To support the development of new activities or a new service.
• Buying a building (freehold or leasehold).

The buildings they invest in are either listed, in a conservation area, or may be of special significance to the community. The organisations that they support all want to create sustainable new uses of historic buildings for the benefit of local communities.

Their loans are a form of social investment; repayable finance aimed at not-for-profit organisations driven by a social purpose. If you want to find out more about social investment, Good Finance is a collaborative project aimed at helping improve access to information on social investment for charities and social enterprises.

Who Can Apply?

To apply you must be a formally constituted and either an incorporated charity, community business or social enterprise whose members have limited liability. This includes:

• Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs)
• Charitable Companies Limited by Guarantee
• Not-for-private-profit Companies Limited by Guarantee
• Community Interest Companies (CICs) Limited by Guarantee
• Community Benefit Societies
• Co-operatives

Heritage Impact Fund

The Heritage Impact Fund offers tailored finance for charities, social enterprises and community businesses across the UK seeking to acquire, reuse or redevelop buildings which are of historic or architectural importance. As well as delivering impact that supports the sustainability of historic buildings, the Heritage Impact Fund supports projects that are seeking to deliver demonstrable local economic and community impact.

• Loan Amount: £25,000 to £500,000
• Interest Rate: Typically 6-8% fixed rate
• Repayment Term: Up to 5 years, with potential for capital and interest repayment holidays
• Security: Secured and unsecured
• Arrangement fee: 1.5% - 2% of the loan amount
• Availability: UK-wide

Where it is needed, they may be able to offer additional expert support, advice and mentoring to Heritage Impact Fund clients, to support sustainable business change and to help drive their long-term social and economic impact through their RePlan capacity building service.

The HIF is a joint initiative with contributions from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw, Department for Communities Northern Ireland and the Architectural Heritage Fund itself. Additionally, Rathbone Greenbank Investments is pleased to provide investment management and loan facilities to the AHF.

Please read their programme guidance for further information.

Enquire and Apply

Please read their programme guidance for further information.

General Funds

General Funds are available to invest in more traditional heritage projects. These include projects which may require longer-term finance or demonstrate less community benefit than is required to access their other loan funds.

• Loan Amount: Usually up to £500,000, with flexibility to lend more in exceptional cases
• Interest Rate: Typically 6-8% fixed rate
• Repayment Term: Longer terms, dependent on available funds
• Security: Secured and unsecured
• Arrangement fee: 1.5% - 2% of the loan amount
• Availability: UK-wide

Please read the programme guidance for further information.

Enquire and Apply

Please complete their short online Expression of Interest form.

One of their team will then contact you to discuss your requirements and answer any questions you may have. They will ask you questions about your project to determine your eligibility for their funds and if repayable finance is right for you.

If your organisation and project are eligible and your plans sufficiently developed, they will then invite you to submit a full application.

There are no deadlines for applying. They strongly encourage applicants to submit an Expression of Interest as early as possible.

A number of schemes are England only

• Thrive Together Fund
• Energy Resilience Fund
• Reach Fund

Recent Loans

To view details of recent loan offers visit the website here