National Lottery Heritage Fund Consultant
Heritage consultant
Heritage Consultancy Feasibility
National Lottery Heritage Fund Business Plan Longford
Heritage attraction business plan
Gladstones Library business resilience
West Norwood Cemetery Lottery
Visitor experience consultants
Visitor attraction consultant

National Lottery Heritage Fund Consultant

Planning Solutions Consulting has worked on a number of National Lottery Heritage Fund (and the former Heritage Lottery Fund). Our work usually focuses on preparing business plans and business resilience plans, conducting operational reviews, and advising on the development of the ‘experience.’

Planning Solutions Consulting has an established track record of delivering successful National Lottery Heritage Fund projects, including work under the former Heritage Lottery Fund.

We work closely with organisations to strengthen their funding applications and long-term sustainability. Our work focuses on preparing business plans and business resilience plans, conducting operational reviews, and providing strategic advice to shape compelling visitor and community experiences.

National Lottery Heritage Fund projects

  • Shropshire Council: Ditherington Flax Mill Maltings, located in Shrewsbury, is a unique and internationally important site. It contains seven listed buildings, including the first cast-iron-framed building, considered the world’s first ‘skyscraper’. We prepared the business plan for the project, which secured funding from the Lottery
  • Newham Council: Prepared a business plan and organisational and governance strategy to support a successful funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project is focused on the transformation of Canning Town Old Library, Grade II listed, into a vibrant Heritage Centre which will incorporate an archive store, reading room, education and interpretation spaces and a catering offer
  • Gladstone’s Library: Completed a business resilience planning project for Gladstone’s Library, a Grade I residential library in Flintshire, which incorporates an extensive programme of events, a chapel, café, accommodation and gardens
  • The Kent Mining Heritage Foundation: Commissioned to carry out a strategic retail assessment to identify the way forward for retail offer at Kent Mining Museum. This was coupled with identifying practical hands-on operational improvements, which will help to optimise the Kent Mining Museum shop
  • Trafford Council: Working in a multidisciplinary team, Planning Solutions Consulting was commissioned to produce a business plan for Longford Park to support a successful application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund
  • Sussex Wildlife Trust: Prepared a business plan to support a National Lottery Heritage Fund application for the Rye Discovery Visitor Centre and nature reserve project
  • Central Bedfordshire Council: Working alongside The Tourism Company to prepare the Business Plan for a Lottery Fund application. The business plan was used to secure over £2m in funding for Houghton Hall Park
  • Lambeth Council: We were commissioned to advise on the development of the experience, identifying key audiences and core operational considerations for West Norwood Cemetery. This supported a successful funding application to the Lottery.
  • Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council: Updated the business plan and options review for the operational management and governance of Kirkleatham Walled Garden, which includes a café, events space and walled garden along with horticultural and catering training academies. The project was funded by the NLHF and other funds.
  • Neath Port Talbot CBC: As part of an NLHF project, we worked in a multi-disciplinary team to carry out a market assessment and options (with supporting financial models) and to identify and evaluate new uses for Margam Castle (Grade I).
  • Epping Forest Heritage Trust: We carried out a comprehensive feasibility study and assessment of the Trust’s activities to provide clear, practical recommendations on its services moving forward, with a focus on the visitor centre, which they manage and public engagement. A key remit of the Trust is education and learning across Epping Forest.
  • St Albans Cathedral: Working with Nick Stead, a heritage consultant, our work focused on advising the client on the business plan for this Lottery Fund application as part of a wider project.
  • Farming Wildlife Advisory Group: Working with another consultancy, we completed an Audience Development Plan for the final 2.5km of the River Lambourn.
  • RSPB: Prepared the audience development plan for Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve. We also reviewed the business plan, which was prepared by the in-house RSPB project team.

We also draw on experience of working across the wider visitor experience, natural environment, and heritage sectors – from conducting feasibility studies for Forestry England at Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest to working with the SMT to prepare the business plan for Eden Project North and with Historic Environment Scotland at Urquhart Castle.

Added value – operational experience

We are not just strategic consultants – in our consultancy team, we have current delivery and operational connections to popular visitor experiences, and we will bring that data-led knowledge of systems and structures to the table. What truly sets us apart is that we don’t just consult – our team manages visitor attraction, tourism and other businesses in the UK. Through Planning Solution Consulting’s sister company, Planning Solutions Limited, we directly operate:

  • CONKERS Discovery Centre, an environmental and forest activity and learning experience in Leicestershire
  • Kent Life, a heritage farm park in Kent
  • Cotswold Country Park and Beach, a popular activity destination in the Cotswolds
  • National Brewery Centre, formerly the Bass Museum (managed between 2010 and October 2022)
  • The Royal Esplanade Hotel, a 70-bed hotel in Ryde on the Isle of Wight
  • The Burton Bridge Brewery and Burton Bridge Inn, a brewery and pub in Burton Upon Trent

At these sites, PSL manages the catering, retail, events, education, weddings, corporate use, membership schemes, admissions, exhibits, collections (Kent Life and formerly the NBC) and all other activities. We know what it takes to build sustainable, resilient businesses – not from the outside looking in, but from direct, day-to-day involvement. Our operational experience translates directly into better consultancy advice. We bring:

  • Live trading intelligence: Real-time insight from actively managed visitor sites, not just desk research
  • Commercial realism: We understand what works in practice in a setting, not just in theory
  • Operational empathy: We know the pressures and challenges organisations and operators face day to day in running visitor and heritage-focused sites

The result for our clients is consultancy grounded in realism – practical, honest, and shaped by experience. We are drawing on genuine operational experience to help develop sustainable and viable projects.

Please get in touch

Have a question about your National Lottery Heritage Fund project? Richard Linington is happy to help. Call 07866 742628 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk