ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the considerable variety of grants which can with luck and skill be dug out of the public purse. A basic requirement, apart from a house in bad structural repair and/or lacking basic services, is an exceptional building, or group of buildings. More recently building societies, especially the Abbey National, have seen it as part of their responsibility to help in particular run-down areas. Conservation impact and political expediency are close allies. Aware of the multitude of possible sources of finance for the repair of historic buildings, English Heritage published a Directory of Public Sources of Grants for the Repair and Conversion of Historic Buildings in 1988. The chapter summarizes the functions of these and other grant-giving bodies. English Heritage, to use Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission's (HBMC) popular title, is intended to be an independent body devoted to the conservation and presentation of England's inheritance of ancient monuments and historic buildings.
