How We Are Funded
The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (HBMCE) was established by the National Heritage Act 1983 and until 31 March 2015 was known as English Heritage.
On 1 April 2015 English Heritage separated into two organisations:
- Historic England, the public body that champions and protects England’s historic environment and
- The English Heritage Trust that looks after the National Heritage Collection consisting of 400 historic sites, such as Stonehenge and Dover Castle
In the past, we were funded by a mixture of grant-in-aid (GIA) from the government and commercial income (memberships, admissions and retail etc) from running the National Heritage Collection,
From 1 April 2015 the English Heritage Trust took over the day to day running of the National Heritage Collection, and Historic England no longer derived any income from this source.
Income from grant-in-aid
In 2023/24 Historic England received £101.5 million in grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Our Framework Agreement with Government provides the context and framework for our work and sets out our key activities for the money we receive.
Self-generated income
Historic England also receives a small amount of other funding, such as research grants and lottery funding, for particular projects.
Also of interest
