How we help with built heritage grant applications

The window to apply for 2027 built heritage grant funding is closing.

The Built Heritage Investment Scheme (BHIS) and the Historic Thatched Buildings (HTB) stream must be lodged with the relevant local authority by the date that authority sets, and no later than 30 October 2026. Some authorities close earlier, and several publish a clock time as well as a date. Tipperary County Council’s BHIS and HTB cut-off is 27 October 2026. Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council sit on 30 October 2026, with local time cut-offs. The Historic Structures Fund (HSF) lodges no later than 27 November 2026.

The first question is whether there is still time to prepare a complete pack for your building and your local authority’s cut-off. Late or incomplete applications are typically not accepted. A companion note sets out eligibility, grant bands and those deadlines in more detail.

What these schemes are

BHIS is the principal small-to-medium conservation grant, administered through local authorities. It supports the repair and conservation of structures protected under the Planning and Development Acts — and, in defined cases, vernacular buildings, historic shopfronts, and structures in Architectural Conservation Areas. Grants run from €2,500 to €50,000. A Method Statement is required; BHIS treats it as a primary basis for assessing the efficacy and quality of the works.

HSF is the larger-scale fund. For 2027 it offers grants from €50,000 to €200,000 for enhancement, refurbishment or reuse, where a clear community or public benefit — or a clear residential benefit — has been demonstrated. Each local authority may shortlist only a limited number of private projects. The Method Statement must describe the condition of the structure and how the works will be carried out, and must not exceed ten A4 pages. The absence of a suitably comprehensive statement is a frequent cause of failure at assessment.

HTB sits inside BHIS as a dedicated stream for historic thatched buildings. Primary qualifying works are thatching to the roof and related works necessary to complete it. The circular sets a maximum of €20,000.

Only one grant can be availed of per structure. An application under more than one stream is possible; if more than one is awarded, the applicant must choose which to take.

These schemes are not planning permission. Qualifying works still have to meet statutory requirements, including planning permission where it is needed. They are also not a guarantee of funding. The circulars themselves note that BHIS is competitive, that most awards come in below €30,000, and that applicants do not tend to receive the full amount requested.

How we help you lodge

Armstrong Planning and our in-house design studio, Vico Group, prepare BHIS, HSF and HTB applications from eligibility through lodging with the relevant local authority. That is the claim, and it is a narrow one. We do not award grants, carry out the funded works, or recoup funding from the Department.

The work is organised as five packages. Not every application needs all five. The point of splitting them is to put the right document in front of the assessing officer, and to avoid commissioning reports the scheme does not ask for.

1. Grant Pathway Consult

A short, structured review of the structure, the proposed works and the local authority’s published cut-off. The output is a recommendation on which stream to apply under — BHIS, HSF, HTB, or more than one — and a list of what the lodgement pack will need to contain. This is the right first step where ownership, statutory status, or the scale of the works is not yet settled, and where the question is whether there is still time.

2. Conservation Method Statement

The technical core of the application. We prepare the statement to the discipline the circulars set: concise description of the structure, the works proposed, materials and method, impact and mitigation where relevant, and a graded sense of urgency. For HSF it must not exceed ten A4 pages. The statement is written by a conservation professional, as the circulars require.

3. Heritage Appraisal / Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment

Used where the assessing officer — or a parallel planning process — needs a clear account of significance and of the effect of the proposed works on that significance. Typical where the structure is protected, where HSF is being asked to fund a reuse or residential-benefit project that must also move through planning, or where the works go beyond like-for-like repair. For a grant pack it is scaled to the scheme, not to a full planning submission, unless the two processes are running together.

4. Conservation Design — Vico Group

Drawings, specification of interventions and the design of any adaptation that the Method Statement has to describe. Led from the heritage and conservation studio within Vico Group, this is the package for cases where the works are not self-evident from a contractor quote. The grant application and the design response have to describe the same works. Assessing officers notice when they do not.

5. Grant Application Coordination

Form A, the checklist, quotations, photographs, matching-funding evidence, owner’s consent where the applicant is not the owner, and lodging with the local authority by its published date and time. We assemble the pack so that the form, the Method Statement, the drawings and the quotes describe one project, and we lodge it in the format that authority will accept — online portal, email or post, as published.

Typical routes

A straightforward BHIS repair — essential fabric work to a protected structure, with a competent contractor quote already in hand — is usually Packages 1, 2 and 5: pathway, Method Statement, and coordination through to lodgement.

HTB applications for thatching and necessary associated roof works tend to sit on the same stack, with Package 3 or 4 added only where related fabric, an ACA setting, or a drawn specification is needed.

HSF applications more often take the full stack. The fund is limited, each local authority may put forward only a small number of private projects, and a weak Method Statement is a common reason for failure at assessment. Where a community, public or residential benefit has to be demonstrated, that case has to be written into the pack, not left as an assertion on Form A. If the works also require planning permission, Packages 3 and 4 are developed so that the grant description and the planning description do not diverge.

Protected-structure work that involves a design intervention — not only repair — typically needs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The Method Statement describes how the work will be done; the heritage appraisal explains why that work is acceptable against the significance of the building; the drawings show it.

What we need from you

The application is assessed on what is submitted by the closing date. To prepare the pack we need, as a minimum:

• confirmation of ownership, or a letter of consent from the owner
• the address and Eircode, and the RPS, RMP or NIAH reference if you have it
• photographs of the current condition of the relevant fabric
• contractor quotations for the works proposed
• evidence of match funding
• any existing surveys, previous permissions, or prior grant history for the structure
• access for inspection

Missing items can be worked around early; they cannot be worked around after the local authority’s cut-off.

Window closing — call us to assess eligibility and prepare your BHIS/HSF application end-to-end.