Contribution
I very much heard the points that the right hon. Member made. I commit to taking them back to the Minister responsible, and I will ensure that he writes to the right hon. Member in good time.
The heritage revival fund is a new scheme altogether, and one that is designed to put local people in the driving seat. The Government recognise that restoring buildings that once stood as visible symbols of progress is an important way of restoring people’s pride in their area and empowering local people to take control of their own destiny again. The fund will build on the previous transforming places through heritage fund, which provided support to market towns in places such as Lancashire, Suffolk and West Yorkshire. For example, it gave more than £120,000 to the Bridgwater Baptist church in Somerset, a grade II* listed church built in 1837, enabling it to be converted to a multi-purpose space supporting wider community use and providing workspaces for businesses. That fund provided a really useful model for how Government backing for local community organisations can help to unlock further backing from the private sector, such as commercial loans and other grants.
On top of our heritage capital funding, my Department delivers the listed places of worship scheme, which gives grants towards VAT paid on repairs and renovations to listed sites of worship across the UK. My colleague the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism recently set out in a debate in this Chamber how the scheme is playing an important role in keeping culture alive and well in our communities, providing facilities and meeting points for local residents. In addition to providing places to worship, many of these buildings act as music venues, food banks and community halls, all of which contribute to the cultural heritage of a place. We know that the scheme is making a difference in market towns and local areas up and down the country, which is why we are making £23 million-worth of funding available between 2025 and 2026.
Support is not just limited to central Government Departments such as DCMS; our arm’s length bodies and executive agencies also play a key role. Arts Council England, the national funding body for the arts, provides a range of supports for villages, towns and cities up and down the country. The Arts Council recognises how important it is that funding gets to places that need it most, and over 60% of its investments are now outside London, with more support for regional venues and cultural assets in market towns.
Through its national portfolio programme, Arts Council England is supporting initiatives such as the Essex Cultural Diversity Project, which has a main office in Rochford in my hon. Friend’s constituency and aims to boost cultural diversity in the arts and heritage through local projects. The Arts Council has given £300,000 to Rochford alone since 2020, which includes some vital support during the pandemic.
DCMS also makes public funding available through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Last year that fund invested more than £293 million of money raised by national lottery players in almost 1,300 heritage projects across the UK. It has backed a range of community heritage projects, including schemes such as the Rochford Town Team, which is promoting a heritage trail around the market town. I will not list every project, but hon. Members will know that the National Lottery Heritage Fund gives grants that will make a visible difference in an area.
I will briefly touch on the importance of market towns to our visitor economy and tourism sectors. As all Members here today know, many market towns are magnets for tourists who want to visit, soak in the culture and spend their money on local hospitality. From the historic streets of Stamford to the literary heritage of Stratford-upon-Avon—I always remember my granddad taking me there when we were growing up—we have so many examples across Britain.
My colleague the tourism Minister’s goal is 50 million international visitors by 2030; we need to ensure that the benefits of UK tourism are being felt well beyond our major cities and in places such as market towns. To match those words with action, we are working in partnership with VisitBritain, VisitEngland and local visitor economy partnerships to put market towns at the heart of our tourism strategy.
I would love to say more on that, but in the interests of time I will move on to say that, although I have spoken to DCMS’s contribution, I am pleased to confirm that the Deputy Prime Minister has today launched the Government’s new plan for neighbourhoods programme. The plan for neighbourhoods will provide £1.5 billion to 75 communities across the UK over the next decade, including a number of market towns.
In each place, the Government will help set up a new neighbourhood board, bringing together residents, local businesses and grassroots campaigners to draw up and implement a new vision for their neighbourhood. In consultation with their community, each board will be given the freedom to decide how to spend £2 million a year to deliver the priorities of local people, whether by regenerating their historical high streets, supporting new and historical open-air markets or unlocking further local investment. Our new approach puts communities at the heart of delivery and is aimed at revitalising local areas and fighting deprivation at its root by zeroing in on three strategic objectives of building thriving places, strengthening communities and empowering people to take back control of their local areas.
Taken together, the support we are making available to market towns will help to deliver what we all want to see: thriving market towns that can look forward to a prosperous future. We want to preserve the heritage that gives those towns their identity, to make them central to our tourism sector and visitor economy, and to sustain the local cultural assets that inspire this generation and the next.