Heritage attractions in York have been told to seek funding from local businesses in the light of Government cuts, but will it fill the gap? Julie Hayes asks York’s attractions and businesses.

HERITAGE attractions in York will struggle to pull philanthropic investors from London, the industry told MP Ed Vaizey when he visited the city.

The Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, said the Government hoped its £80 million fund to match donations from businesses in culture and heritage, as well as an Honours system that gave profile to conspicuous philanthropists outside London, would encourage regional investment.

He suggested heritage attractions be funded by a mix of one third Government funding, one third its own earnings and one third philanthropic contributions from businesses and wealthy individuals.

Andrew Scott, former director of the National Railway Museum (NRM), said he agreed with the Government’s will to encourage philanthropy, but questioned how York would attract the big spenders they needed after grants of £5 million towards the NRM’s £21 million rejuvenation project and £1 million towards the York Minster Revealed project, were cancelled by Yorkshire Forward.

“If you go back to the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, a lot of developments you saw in the big cities in the UK were the result of philanthropy – the libraries, theatres, museums and public halls. There was a great tradition of those who had been successful in the locality, seeing themselves as having a duty to fund public facilities.”

Now, he says the tradition has gone, as business is done more nationally and internationally, meaning decisions have been taken away from a local level.

“Corporations think very carefully about how they should be applying shareholder’s funds and they measure very carefully what they’re trying to achieve. They’re looking for visibility to the public and if the decisions are taken in London or New York, then York is seen as quite peripheral.”

He said the city’s tourism needs major investment to remain competitive among the best tourist cities in Europe.

“Contributions from local businesses make a huge difference to education programmes or theatre productions on a one-off basis, but in terms of major investments that need to be made if York’s to be a world class tourist centre in years to come. We’re talking about seven to eight figure sums. And as it stands it’s difficult to see how that can be achieved through philanthropy.”


Aviva's investment in learning centre

Aviva invested £250,000 into the new Explore library learning centre and partnered with City of York Council to run a volunteer programme called Learn and Thrive, offering workshops for local people in financial capability.

James Henderson, head of customer management at Aviva, said the project enabled Aviva staff to engage with the council from volunteer to management level, as well as with the local community.

“The basis of the partnership now is rather than just throwing money at it, to help the Explore centre to be a sustainable concern in this environment when other libraries are closing,” said James. Aviva will help to develop a performance culture within the Explore centre, focused on increasing visitor numbers and revenue.

The business’ volunteers will also help Explore establish a digital inclusion strategy getting York residents online, try to get the civic archive reinstated in the library and continue its financial capability workshops.

“We wanted to cement the reputation of Aviva in York and the library is such a central building. More than that, it gave us the opportunity to develop financial capability in the city, so the business case wrote itself.”