Heritage development trusts' top tips

Rita Harkin, AHF Support Officer, Helen Quigley from Inner City Trust and Matthew Mckeague, AHF Chief Executive on site with the contractors working to save 17–20 Magazine Street in Derry (Photo: Tony Monaghan).

Introduction

in December 2023, 12 organisations based around the UK were selected as new ‘heritage development trusts’ following a competitive bidding process. The initiative is being led by the Architectural Heritage Fund in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It follows on from a pilot project in England between 2020–23 which helped seven building preservation trusts and similar organisations to grow their operations and complete historic building regeneration projects at a greater pace.

A heritage development trust is not a prescribed legal structure. Qualifying organisations may be social enterprises or charities of various forms, but they share a commitment to improving the places they operate in. This is achieved through the acquisition and repair of historic buildings, providing new uses which meet the needs of their communities. The key to their success is forging effective partnership with their local authorities and other stakeholders, including other third sector organisations and private businesses. By taking an entrepreneurial approach to development, they seek to develop an asset base of properties that can generate enough income to sustain their operations.

The 12 new heritage development trusts will receive a package of support for capacity-building over three years (until 2026) including revenue funding, support from consultants acting as ‘critical friends’, a peer learning programme and access to grants to develop projects involving the rescue and viable reuse of vacant or underused historic buildings.

IHBC asked four of the heritage development trusts what advice they would offer to others developing their business cases for upcoming projects and what are the main risks to look out for in delivery. This diverse group covers the four UK nations:

• Redruth, where Redruth Revival Community Interest Company operates, was once the centre of Cornwall’s tin and copper mining industry and has a rich stock of historic buildings from its Victorian heyday;
• Derry/Londonderry, the historic walled city in Northern Ireland where the Inner City Trust has restored a large number of properties since its formation in the 1970s;
• Haverfordwest, the Pembrokeshire market town where Haverfordwest Heritage, a start-up with big ambitions to tackle the significant heritage at risk, has just secured a Community Ownership Fund grant to acquire its first property; and
• Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland, was awarded modern city status in 2022 and is now the focus for the activities of Fife Historic Buildings Trust, a long-established building preservation trust.

Ross Williams, Redruth Revival CIC, Cornwall

Choose your building projects very carefully. There are usually valid reasons why owners (whether private or public sector) neglect their building assets so research those before plunging in, even if the purchase price seems a bargain.

Think hard about the potential end uses before committing to a project. You may be able to raise the capital costs, but will it have a viable and sustainable future without needing revenue funding?

Make sure you’ve got good advice from experienced professionals who will help you understand the physical condition of your building and enable you to make realistic assessments on timescales and costs. If it’s listed, then appreciate that this slows planning processes and increases your costs, although it may make the project more attractive to some funders and to some types of tenants.

Build a good team with a range of appropriate skills and get incorporated – you’ll need the protection of a limited liability legal structure, most commonly a charitable incorporated organisation or a community interest company.

Redruth Revival CIC was set up by a group of activists who shared a common vision three years before we bought our first building. This meant there was time to get to know and trust each other by developing ideas and options for town centre regeneration before buying the very dilapidated, early 19th-century Buttermarket and Mining Exchange.

Timing can be crucial and can also be a matter of luck; Redruth was awarded High Street Heritage Action Zone status not long after we bought the Buttermarket, so we had an early funding win and that then unlocked much bigger funding from other sources. This has had a positive cascading impact on confidence so other partner projects have emerged across the town, building a sense of momentum and excitement.

Helen Quigley, Inner City Trust, Derry/Londonderry

Our top tip for developing a business case is to be realistic from the outset in terms of defining the project objectives, outputs and outcomes, and not to over-predict these. It is important to factor in all of the risks to the project, both at construction and post-construction phase, and have robust mitigations in place to deal with unforeseen issues. It is key to be aware of the dynamic operating environment around you in terms of key factors that might negatively impact upon the project during all of its phases. For example, global economic trends and the resultant impact on project costs. For new project promoters, we would recommend engagement with similar types of organisations who have experience in developing restoration projects to gain valuable insights into the design and delivery of their projects. For established project promoters, we would recommend reviewing and evaluating your previous project(s) and to incorporate the lessons into your new scheme’s business plan. A practical options appraisal is also an important tool in the business case in terms of having the ability to adapt to a scaled-back approach, should some of the expected funding not be forthcoming.

Early engagement with all project partners is considered to be a critical component of designing and developing a successful project in terms of not only securing buy-in, but also managing expectations of what is achievable. This engagement includes dialogue with, firstly, statutory agencies responsible for planning, heritage, highways and environment to obtain key technical advice in order ensure that the project secures the relevant consents. Secondly with funders, in terms of establishing their likely support for the project to enable you to establish affordability and any financial implications at an early stage. It is very important to look beyond the capital project and to focus on the finished output in terms of sustainability, management and overall longevity. The pandemic created challenges for some of our projects during which a selection of tenants were having difficulty in sustaining their business due to the restrictions, low footfall, recurring and rising costs and other reasons. The Inner City Trust took a strategic approach to what were very acute and immediate issues by providing short-term ‘rental holidays’ to some of our tenants. This helped to minimise vacancies and business failures thereby ensuring sustainability and promoting the vibrancy of our own property portfolio.

Jennifer Summers, Haverfordwest Heritage Ltd, Pembrokeshire

Develop a good plan of action, get the right people on your team and execute the plan in the right order! Don’t jump ahead just because of a grant deadline; if you miss it, the chances are there’ll be other funding options later. Get ‘all your ducks in a row’ before submitting funding applications to avoid having to request too many changes from your funder when you later realise you need to adapt your plans.

Engage the local community and potential users of the building early on so they become committed to the project. You’ll need their support at every step from supporting funding, refining plans, and making sure the new use of the building is well supported once it reopens.

Dealing with private owners of neglected heritage buildings is the most difficult challenge for our trust. Many significantly overvalue their buildings and there is little incentive to sell for a realistic price. Charm, perseverance and ability to show you can produce the money and not waste their time may be all that you can offer – sometimes it works!

Lorraine Bell, Fife Historic Buildings Trust, Dunfermline, Fife

At Fife Historic Buildings Trust, this is seen from different perspectives: as a project manager working with clients and specialist consultants to develop a business case for a potential project; and as a property owner or end user, which the trust is itself. Three top tips stand out:

• Do your research: challenge your assumptions by getting to the facts. Gaps in your knowledge create risk.
• Get an independent view: work with experienced consultants who understand the pitfalls and opportunities. Talk to others who have succeeded, or failed, with similar projects.
• Revisit your case often: circumstances change, and your thinking will need to with it. A sound concept can survive this and may even be improved.

At St Margaret’s House in Dunfermline, the first phase of works with Fife Council has repaired the exterior and reinstated lost architectural detail. The building has been transformed externally and this has raised its stock locally as a building of interest with a role to play in the future of the city centre. The challenge previously was that the building had been overlooked by many. Happily, this is no longer the case. The challenge now will be to assess the varied ideas put forward for the space, and to work with stakeholders to identify the right viable end use and end user.

Looking ahead

These four viewpoints highlight how much these projects have in common, both in terms of the challenges faced in the different corners of the United Kingdom, and in terms of the need to research and fully understand the resources available. Voluntary organisations like these can draw on funding sources that are unavailable to the private sector, successfully bridging the viability gap. They are able to draw on the expertise and energy of local communities to ensure that projects are better suited to local needs. And, perhaps most importantly, the trusts themselves represent a unique resource, bringing skill, determination and vision to address the increasing threats posed by changes in society, our economy and our environment to the historic built environment.

Once associated with places of relatively high levels of deprivation and need, the heritage trust model is increasingly being seen as key to new challenges facing the historic environment everywhere, not least in the high streets of many of our historic town centres, and in a growing wave of redundant churches and chapels.

This article originally appeared in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) 2024 Yearbook. It was written by Gavin Richards, Heritage Development Trusts Programme Manager at The Architectural Heritage Fund. The article was prepared with the help of Ross Williams, Director, Redruth Revival Community Interest Company; Helen Quigley, Projects Advisor, Inner City Trust; Jennifer Summers, Director, Haverfordwest Heritage Ltd; and Lorraine Bell, Trust Manager, Fife Historic Buildings Trust.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation

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