Historic churches, synagogues, town halls, market halls and castles across England are set for repair and renovation thanks to more than £41 million of government investment, announced by Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross following visits to Margate and Ramsgate. The two grant programmes form part of the wider £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund and are delivered by Historic England.

The worship fund's first round splits just over £18 million across 51 recipients, from celebrated minsters to modest chapels and synagogues where fundraising is toughest. Cornwall's Church of St Elwyn gets repointing and masonry work to keep water out; Birmingham Cathedral receives help to stabilise its tower and dome; and Grimsby's Montefiore synagogue, the last of its kind in Lincolnshire and South Humberside, will restore the ark inside its late-19th-century interior.

A second pot — almost £13 million — is directed at twenty buildings officially classified as at risk, in the second funding round for that strand. In Margate, structural work will reopen the museum and its vacant Old Town Hall to community use; in Blackpool, the money secures the disused Abingdon Street post office as the opening move toward a community-run cultural space. Three heavyweight English Heritage sites get their own allocation: £10 million this parliament for Dover Castle's fortifications, the Brodsworth Hall roof in Doncaster, and the roof of Osborne, Queen Victoria's Isle of Wight residence.

Both funds prioritise areas of greatest need, where fundraising is hardest. The Places of Worship Renewal Fund is worth £92 million across this parliament and the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund £75 million, with second-round recipients for 2026/27 to be announced later. Emma Squire and Claudia Kenyatta, co-chief executives of Historic England, said the £41 million would support 74 projects facing significant repair and conservation needs.