Council funding for trusts protecting Glasgow's built heritage

Published: 31 August 2023

The Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Glasgow City Heritage Trust have been awarded funding of £50,000 and £240,000 respectively by Glasgow City Council for the 2023/24 financial year.

Such support is valuable as Glasgow's built heritage is key to the city's identity, tourism, wellbeing, regeneration, employment and economic recovery. A recent study found that the historic environment generates over £4.4billion a year for Scotland's economy, sustaining 68,000 full-time equivalent jobs. The Glasgow Building Preservation Trust (GBPT) has since 1982 restored and repurposed historic buildings and other heritage assets in the city and is a key partner in the council's People Make Glasgow Communities programme, which empowers communities to take control of local heritage assets.

Some of the most notable of the 30 restoration projects GBPT has completed either directly or on behalf of other organisations include Parkhead Public School and the recently-completed West Boathouse on the Clyde (pictured), and the Trust has raised and invested around £40 million for Glasgow's built environment which represents an estimated £9 for every £1 of Glasgow City Council investment.

In 1990, GBPT introduced the Doors Open Days festival to the UK in 1990 as part of Glasgow's term as European City of Culture - the event is now in its 34^th year, and the Trust is working with the council to deliver a Heritage Asset Study, prioritising 35 buildings owned by the city, to restore and address many more of Glasgow's heritage assets and create valuable community facilities.

The Glasgow City Heritage Trust (GCHT) delivers a grant programme to facilitate owners to restore the city's at-risk built heritage, as well as a variety of outreach and heritage skills training programmes. GCHT is funded through a partnership between the council and Historuc Environment Scotland (HES) in recognition of the value of that built heritage and the challenges it faces.

Recent work by the Trust includes a collaboration with the council to help 38 owners across three tenement closes to undertake essential repairs to the 'B' listed Glasgow Style tenement Camphill Gate in Shawlands; funded and assisted with conservation repairs to The Pyramid at Anderston; and grant aided works to remove the unusual 'B' listed warehouse at 202-4 Hunter Street from the Buildings at Risk Register.

The GCHT has invested £15.3 million in repairing 587 of Glasgow's historic buildings; offered grants to more than 1,980 people and organisations to help them look after their historic properties; saved 53 redundant or underused historic buildings in Glasgow; and supported 59 traditional skills training projects, promoting careers in specialist conservation trades and informing property owners on current best conservation practice.

Council funding for the Trusts is complemented by funding from Historic Environment Scotland.

Councillor Kenny McLean, Convener for Built Heritage at Glasgow City Council, said: "Glasgow's built environment is very important to us, in not only the quality of the places we live in and visit, but also to our economy and sense of ourselves. This makes the work of both the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Glasgow City Heritage Trust essential in helping to maintain and improve our built heritage, and so we are pleased to continue to support them through this funding."