Heritage grant | Hamilton City Council

Fund snapshot

Why do we have this fund?

An appreciation of the past contributes to a sense of identity and belonging for residents and visitors. The annually allocated Heritage Fund supports actions set out in our Hamilton Heritage Plan, and ensures the story of Hamilton, dating back to pre-European settlement, is told and passed onto future generations.

Council is also required to protect and conserve Hamilton’s heritage areas and structures under a number of different pieces of legislation (see the Heritage Plan for details).

Heritage is represented in a number of ways:

buildings and structure (see our Heritage Design Guides below)
heritage areas and landscapes
natural and archaeological sites
taonga, artefacts, documents and places or areas of significance to Maaori..

View a GIS map showing heritage items and sites.

What does this fund look like?

Council allocates a total of $80,000 from its Heritage Fund each year to help owners of listed heritage buildings and group 1 archaeological sites within the city’s boundaries.

Projects supported by the Heritage Fund have included:

heritage conservation plans and build assessment reports
earthquake-strengthening works
restoration and repair of leadlight windows and sash windows
repairs to porches and decorative plaster works, or borer treatment.

Application criteria

Who can apply

Individuals or groups that privately own listed heritage buildings and group 1 archaeological sites within the city’s boundaries (whether the owner/s are individuals, groups or organisations, and whether or not they live in Hamilton). This fund is not available to Government or tertiary institutions that own archaeological sites.

What is funded?

Any project or initiative where the above criteria above applies and the focus of the application is on the protection, conservation, restoration, and use of both built heritage and archaeological sites within Hamilton.

The Heritage Fund is a result of actions set out in the Hamilton Heritage Plan. Specifically, the annually allocated Heritage Fund supports privately-owned projects for:

items listed in Schedule 8A of the District Plan
group 1 archaeological sites listed in Schedule 8B of the District Plan.

The application

1. Application process, guidelines and help.

You’ll need to register on Smartygrants first, then follow the guidelines to complete your application. This will set out what you need before you apply.

There are many help options available through online guides and video tutorials when you are logged into the Smartygrants platform.

Also, here’s how we can help you with the online application process:

You can ask for assistance from one of our funding administrators if you need it.
You can attend an information session (held in February each year).
You can attend one of our regular funding workshops held throughout the year.

For more information contact our Customer Services Team on 07 838 6699 during office hours or email us at info@hcc.govt.nz.

2. When and how you can expect to hear back from us.

We’ll assess your application, and you may get a visit from us as part of the assessment process. Final decisions will be made by full Council at our meetings, which take place about once a month. We’ll let you know whether your application has been successful or not as soon as possible following the Council meeting.

Apply for it