Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help preserve historic buildings in East Sussex.

Support for historic preservation across England is primarily delivered through Historic England, funded by DCMS, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

In East Grinstead and Uckfield, Historic England has focused preservation efforts on advisory casework, local listing recommendations, and monitoring five sites currently on the Heritage at Risk Register. The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded over £8 million to 45 projects in the constituency since 1994, including more than £5.6 million across eight awards for the Bluebell Railway.

East Sussex has received direct investment through the High Street Heritage Action Zone in Hastings (now completed), supported by £1,625,000 from Historic England alongside £7,514,000 in match funding to facilitate projects like the repair and reuse of the Observer Building. Furthermore, grant funding has recently been awarded to support major conservation and regeneration efforts at Brighton Pavilion Gardens and Madeira Terrace in Brighton and Hove, as well as repair work at the Grade II* listed Mint House in Pevensey. Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £138 million to 749 projects in East Sussex, including a 2023 grant of over £5.3 million supporting the restoration of the gardens of Brighton's Royal Pavilion.

Support in West Sussex from Historic England is primarily delivered through targeted specialist advice, council partnerships, and risk monitoring. Historic England tracks 43 heritage assets currently listed on the region's Heritage at Risk Register, while dedicating strategic support to key preservation initiatives, such as advising the Blake Cottage Trust on thatch conservation and partnering with local authorities on heritage-led regeneration in Worthing. The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded over £76 million to 524 projects across West Sussex since 1994, including a 2022 grant of more than £2 million supporting the Woodland Trust's Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs project.