Grants
Conserving our historic environment
Our funding programmes enable vital conservation and repair throughout the city’s historic buildings and public spaces, targeted to support communities, build environmental capacity and enable economic recovery.
Available Grants
The Conservation Funding Programme
Funding status: Temporarily Closed
Our Conservation Funding Programme Grants fund work on the external fabric of historic buildings, using traditional materials and methods.
What we can fund
We can fund a percentage of the following Eligible Costs:
Stonework (e.g. repointing, repair and paint removal with approved methods)
Roof (e.g. leadwork, slatework, joinery, flashings and chimneys)
Limework (e.g. lime pointing, lime wash and lime harling)
Restoration/reinstatement of missing original architectural details
Repair of original windows including reinstatement of original pattern
Railings, steps and other features may be included as part of larger works
What we cannot fund
- Work to properties purchased within the 12 month period prior to a funding application
- Routine maintenance, minor repairs or repairs that are limited in scope
- Alterations, extensions or demolitions
- Internal work
- Upgrading of services or underground drainage
- Stone cleaning
- Legal fees associated with the funding offer
Repairs receiving Conservation Funding must be carried out to best practice standards, as described in Historic Environment Scotland’s Guidance For Repair Grants for building professionals.
The Conservation Funding Programme
Funding status: Temporarily Closed
Shopfronts play a vital role in the city’s unique historic character.
A single high-quality shopfront, designed in sympathy with the historic streetscape, can make a significant improvement to our streets. Traditional architectural details that are hidden or neglected can quickly be revitalised, helping to define the street’s character and enhancing the shopping experience.
The Conservation Funding Programme facilitates owners and tenants of shops within the World Heritage Site to repair and improve shopfronts on historic buildings within the city. We provide funding for the extra costs of developing a high-quality design using traditional shopfront techniques and materials.
What we can fund
We can fund a percentage of the following Eligible Costs:
- Fees for professional services required to develop a sympathetic shopfront design
- Construction costs associated with the shopfront improvements
- Non-recoverable VAT relating to grant-eligible works and fees
- Related Statutory Application fees
- Building insurance costs associated with carrying out the work
What we cannot fund
- Work to properties purchased within the 12 month period prior to a funding application
- Routine maintenance, minor repairs or repairs that are limited in scope
- Alterations, extensions or demolitions
- Internal work
- Upgrading of services or underground drainage
- Stone cleaning
- Legal fees associated with the funding offer
Repairs receiving Conservation Funding must be carried out to best practice standards, as described in Historic Environment Scotland’s Guidance For Repair Grants for building professionals.
Available funding
We can fund up to £50,000 towards improvements to or reconstruction of historic shopfronts.
This is generally offered as a non-repayable grant.
The Community Public Realm Grant
Funding status: Temporarily Closed
Our Community Public Realm Grants support local groups in delivering projects to improve historic public spaces. This can include railing, surface materials, statues, historical interpretation and more.
Edinburgh World Heritage’s Community Public Realm Grants support local groups to deliver projects to improve historic public spaces. This can include railings, surface materials, statues, historical interpretation, and more.
This grant can be claimed by a wide range of community groups, including, but not limited to; Small charities, Local history groups, Community gardens, and “Friends of” groups.
Types of funding
The grant can co-fund projects that seek to:
Protect: repair or conserve an element of the historic public realm
Enhance: improve or enhance neglected areas
Educate: interpret public spaces, tell stories and support learning
Support well-being: create green spaces for people to enjoy the historic environment
If you have a local project that would benefit from this grant, get in touch to see how we can support you.
Contact our World Heritage Site Project Manager, Fiona Rankin.
The Climate Emergency Grant
Funding status: Temporarily Closed
The Climate Emergency Grant provides funding to private owners and public, private and third-sector organisations wishing to carry out targetted energy efficiency improvements or climate change adaption alongside other conservation repairs.
What we can fund
The Climate Emergency Grant currently funds the following types of work:
• Energy efficiency improvements to historic windows or external doors to improve their thermal performance and reduce heat loss. This includes installation of draughtproofing, secondary glazing, thin double glazing (also called narrow profile glazing) or vacuum glazing where acceptable from a conservation perspective, reinstating shutters, insulating shutters and external doors, etc.
• Adaptation of rainwater goods to increase their capacity in handling larger volumes of rainwater — helping them cope with heavier rainfall events and prevent rainwater from making its way into buildings or damaging their facades. Works include improvements to architectural details of rainwater goods such as gutters (including valley/parapet gutters and rhones) and downpipes. Note: eligible works involve rainwater goods that are operating at or beyond their maximum capacity and where an alteration of the original architectural detail – that must be carefully designed – is required to avoid future damage to the building.
These works must be combined with conservation repairs to the targeted windows, external doors or rainwater goods. For windows and doors, this includes replacing rotten parts, fixing opening mechanisms, etc. For rainwater goods, this includes replacing broken downpipe, repointing joints of wall-head gutter, replacing lead elements that reached their lifespan, etc.
What we cannot fund
The Climate Emergency Grant does not fund:
- Conservation repairs to a whole building or a whole roof (you can apply to our Conservation
Funding Programme instead) - Improvement to or replacement of all windows of a single building (you can apply to our
- Conservation Funding
- Programme instead if these works are part of a larger conservation
repair scheme) - Insulation
- Improvement to internal doors – ie flat doors that lead to a communal stair
- Routine maintenance or minor repairs – eg cleaning gutters and downpipes, removing moss, or painting window frames
- Alterations, extensions or demolitions
- Private interior work
- Upgrading of services or underground drainage
- Stone cleaning
Location
You may apply for a grant if you or your organisation own a property (whole building or part of a building in multiple ownership)
- in the World Heritage Site (WHS)
or - in one of these adjoining Conservation Areas: Abbeyhill Colonies, Coltbridge and Wester Coates (area outside WHS), Dalry Colonies, Dean (area outside WHS), Inverleith, Leith (Leith Walk and adjoining area between Albert Place up to Stead’s Place), Marchmont, Meadows & Bruntsfield, New Town (area outside WHS), Pilrig, Rosebank Colonies, Shaw’s Place (Pilrig) colonies, Southside, Stockbridge Colonies, West End (area outside WHS) – for more information on Conservation Areas in Edinburgh, check the following link)
Applications involving properties that are not located in the areas mentioned above will not be eligible and consequently, will not be assessed.
Additionally, we are currently prioritising the following areas as part of Edinburgh World Heritage’s Neighbourhood Focus Areas approach: the Canongate, the Cowgate, South Bridge, Lothian Road/Tollcross, and Greyfriars/Forrest Road.
As part of the Climate Emergency Grant Round 2 and for energy efficiency improvements to historic windows, we will prioritise applications of buildings located in the whole Old Town Conservation Area.
Available funding
We can provide funding of up to 100% of grant eligible costs for the project design phase and up to 70% of grant eligible costs for approved works. The exact balance of funding will be specific to each project. Funding provided as part of the Climate Emergency Grant will be non-repayable.
The maximum amount of Climate Emergency Grant we can offer per project is capped at £25,000.
This means that a given project can cover work to some of the property windows (ie in one or two rooms), or an external door, or one specific rainwater good.
Our criteria and priorities
We will first assess your application’s eligibility. We will then use three criteria, based on round 2 priorities, to assess and prioritise applications:
• Project impact — Projects with potential to generate learnings that can be directly applied to the highest number of buildings in the World Heritage Site will be prioritised – ie highest potential for replicability
• Need of investment — We will prioritise projects to ensure that limited funds are directed towards areas in or adjacent to the World Heritage Site which are of greatest need of investment as well as those owners, tenants and organisations that demonstrate the need for our support.
• Project’s ability to proceed — We will prioritise projects that are not presenting significant organisational and/or technical obstacles preventing project delivery or progress within the targeted timeframe
More details can be found in the guidance notes.
Owners who were unsuccessful in the previous round (December 2022) will be able to apply for the same property if their application involves works on a different building element – such as historic windows, doors and rainwater goods. For example, if you applied for works on windows in the previous round and your application was unsuccessful, you cannot submit a new application for the windows of the same property. However, you can still apply for works on doors or rainwater goods.
How our grants work
Where does our grant funding come from?
Edinburgh World Heritage receives funding from Historic Environment Scotland through their City Heritage Trust Grants Scheme. We distribute this public funding through programmes designed to protect the integrity of our historic city by encouraging the conservation of buildings and public spaces in and around the Old and New Towns of the Edinburgh World Heritage Site.
If you or your organisation own a historic property or part of a property in the World Heritage Site or in an adjoining conservation area, you may apply for funding. If you are a tenant in a historic property or part of a property in the World Heritage Site or in an adjoining conservation area, you may also apply for funding with the written consent of your landlord.
Our funding priorities (2023-2026)
We make clear, transparent decisions on which projects are prioritised for funding. Funding Priorities are agreed with Historic Environment Scotland and are set every three years. There is always a high demand for our funding and assessment of applications is competitive. The success of your application will be dependent on how closely your project aligns with our current Funding Priorities for 2023-26:
- Edinburgh World Heritage Neighbourhood Focus Areas: Canongate, Cowgate, South Bridge, Lothian Road/Tollcross, and Forrest Road
- Edinburgh World Heritage Priority Buildings: tenements in multiple ownership and improvements to or reinstatement of historic shopfronts
- Historic Environment Scotland Impact Criteria: comprehensive external repairs to historic buildings using traditional materials and conservation techniques
If you would like to know more about grants and project funding, please contact us directly.
