Edinburgh opens £3.8m fund to upgrade cultural and heritage buildings

The City of Edinburgh Council said a new £3.8m funding programme to support improvements to Edinburgh’s public cultural and heritage buildings has opened for applications.

The Council said the Small Scale Accessible and Sustainable Capital Fund is a three-year programme reinvesting income from the Edinburgh Visitor Levy directly into sensitively upgrading the city’s cultural buildings. It forms part of the Visitor Levy’s wider £90 million investment programmes, according to the Council.

The Council said owners and operators of these spaces can apply for grants of between £10,000 and £500,000 to invest in projects that make buildings easier to access and help cut carbon emissions, so they can operate more sustainably in the long term. Over the next three years, the fund will support projects that upgrade buildings through retrofitting, upgrading structures and systems, improving access for all and introducing low carbon technologies, the Council said. It added that this could include installing new ramps and lifts, upgrading insulation and windows, and delivering new accessible technology such as wayfinding apps and live captioning equipment.

Applications are now open on a rolling basis, with round one closing on 20 November 2026, round two on 26 February 2027 and round three on 10 December 2027. The Council said eligible organisations can apply via its website.

Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “Edinburgh’s cultural and heritage buildings and spaces are at the heart of what makes our city a world leading cultural destination. We want to invest in these places and protect their futures as high quality, green, creative and well-maintained visitor destinations that everyone can enjoy.”

She added: “A thriving cultural sector in our capital city is one that benefits visitors and residents alike. The Visitor Levy is all about sustaining and enhancing everything that makes Edinburgh so special. By using some of its proceeds to upgrade these unique places, we can make the city a more accessible and welcoming destination for everyone.”

The Council said the fund is backed by the Visitor Levy and delivered through the Culture, Heritage and Events investment programme, part of agreed investment programmes worth over £90 million over the next three years designed to sustain and enhance Edinburgh’s reputation as a destination. The Council said the initial programmes fall under City Operations and Infrastructure, Culture, Heritage and Events, and Destination and Visitor Management themes, and that it will receive the first levy receipts by November.

The Council said other projects already operating under the levy include a £2.62m Innovate Fund for cultural and arts organisations, the Edinburgh Visitor Economy Improvement Fund for businesses, a £132,000 contribution towards the Festival Carnival and Mardi Gras events held over the weekend of 18 and 19 July, funding for ten festival city ambassadors, and a partnership with Police Scotland to create a City Centre Policing Unit.