UK Government announces £20m fund to protect English civic museums

The UK Government has announced a new £20m Museum Renewal Fund to ease the financial pressures facing English civic institutions.

Delivered via Arts Council England for 2025/26, the fund will help keep civic museums open, protect opening hours and jobs, continue serving communities and tell the national story at a local level.

It is part of a major cultural sector funding package of more than £270m announced as part of the government's Plan for Change, which aims to boost local economies and increase opportunities to gain creative skills.

Hundreds of arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings will receive a share of the Arts Everywhere Fund, which comes as the sector marks the 60th anniversary of the government's first ever arts white paper by the UK's inaugural arts minister, Jennie Lee.

The package also includes a fifth round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund (Mend) worth £25m, which will support non-national museums to undertake vital infrastructure projects and tackle urgent maintenance backlogs.

The announcement came as culture secretary Lisa Nandy gathered leaders from across the arts and culture sectors at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon for the Jennie Lee inaugural lecture. Nandy set out how Lee's vision of the "arts for everyone, everywhere" will be made a reality as part of the new plan.

The wider cultural package also includes a 5% increase to the budgets of national museums and galleries sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which aims to support their financial resilience and help them provide access to the national collection.

An additional £120m will be directed to the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund, which will ensure national cultural public institutions are able to address essential works to their estate.

£15m for Heritage at Risk will provide grants for repairs and conservation to heritage buildings at risk, while £3.2m will fund four cultural education programmes for children and young people in the next financial year, including the Museums and Schools Programme and the Heritage Schools Programme.

Ahead of the announcement, Nandy said: “Arts and culture help us understand the world we live in, they shape and define society and are enjoyed by people in every part of our country. They are the building blocks of our world-leading creative industries and make a huge contribution towards boosting growth and breaking down barriers to opportunities for young people to learn the creative skills they need to succeed.

“The funding we are announcing today will allow the arts to continue to flourish across Britain, creating good jobs and growth by fixing the foundations in our cultural venues, museums, libraries and heritage institutions. As a government that is on your side, our Plan for Change will ensure that arts and cultural institutions truly are for everyone, everywhere.”

The culture secretary is also set to confirm the advisory panel of experts who will be supporting Baroness Margaret Hodge with her independent review of Arts Council England.

The news follow's this week's announcement of £67m for ten critical culture projects across the UK, including projects at the National Railway Museum, York, and the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum in Liverpool.

Museums Association director Sharon Heal said: “This is hugely welcome news and we are delighted that the massive contribution that museums make to civic society has been recognised by the government and grateful on behalf of our members who are facing extreme pressure at the moment.

“We have been advocating alongside other sector bodies for investment in civic museums and this will hopefully provide some breathing space for some institutions whilst we continue to make the case for strategic investment in the whole sector.

“Jennie Lee’s white paper recognised that it was crucial that everyone had equality of access to the arts, wherever they lived, and that participation was vital. That is what our vast network of local civic museums do – connect people to their histories and provide opportunities for cultural engagement on their doorsteps.”

£24.8m awarded in latest round of Museum Estate and Development Fund (Mend)

Ahead of the fifth round of Mend launched with the funding package, round four's 29 recipients of £24.8m are also announced today.

The fund enables museums to deliver a better experience for visitors and staff, make access and environmental improvements, tap into income-generating opportunities and protect buildings and collections for future generations.

Recipients of the fourth round of Mend

North West

• Queen Street Mill, Burnley, Lancashire – £813,115
• Furness Abbey, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire – £457,795
• Fusilier Museum and Learning Centre, Bury, Lancashire – £81,244

North East

• Weardale Museum, Weardale, County Durham – £499,665
• Sunderland Winter Gardens, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear – £488,705
• Preston Park Museum, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham – £366,300
• Hartlepool Art Gallery, Hartlepool, County Durham – £302,383

Yorkshire

• Museum of North Craven Life, Settle, North Yorkshire – £798,500
• Land of Iron, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire – £655,907
• Bankfield Museum, Halifax, West Yorkshire – £441,978
• Pickering Beck Isle Museum, Pickering, North Yorkshire – £388,023
• Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire – £315,684

Midlands

• Tamworth Castle, Tamworth, Staffordshire – £1,716,238
• Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, West Midlands – £1,695,75
• Newstead Abbey, Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire – £1,482,882
• Creswell Crags, Worksop, Nottinghamshire – £499,999

East

• Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire – £137,745
• Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, Norfolk – £1,276,711
• Bressingham Steam Museum, Diss, Norfolk – £429,719
• Colchester Castle, Colchester, Essex – £1,293,625
• Southchurch Hall, Southend-on-Sea, Essex – £423,105

South East

• Bletchley Park, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire – £2,451,350
• The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey – £319,000

South West

• Russell Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, Dorset – £1,500,817
• Nothe Fort, Weymouth, Dorset – £1,374,763
• Dorset Museum and Art Gallery, Dorchester, Dorset – £940,500
• Wheal Martyn Clay Works, St Austell, Cornwall – £707,200

London

• London Museum of Water and Steam, Brentford, London – £2,626,277
• The Foundling Museum, Camden, London – £319,000