Building preservation trusts

A building preservation trust (BPT) is a charity whose main aims include the preservation and regeneration of historic buildings.

There are almost 300 BPTs in the UK. The majority are rooted in their local communities. Some cover individual towns, cities, or whole counties; others specialise in particular types of building and a few cover the whole of the UK. Some were formed to save just one building and others, known as revolving fund trusts, a succession of buildings (the AHF maintains a Register of revolving fund trusts). If you want to know whether there is a BPT covering a particular area please contact the AHF.

If you want to know if an existing charity meets the criteria of a BPT, please contact the AHF who will need to see a copy of the charity’s governing document.

Setting up a new building preservation trust
If you want to set up a charity whose main aim is to rescue one or more historic buildings, you should set it up as a BPT (see setting up a charity).

The BPT structure has a number of advantages:

• it is a recognised form of charity, so it is easier to set up than an ad hoc charity
• they specialise in historic building regeneration, and the AHF gives preference to BPT applications if its resources are under pressure
• they qualify for additional grants from the AHF
• they qualify for membership of the Association of Preservation Trusts (see below)
• they will have all the powers needed to rescue historic buildings
• they are established as limited companies, reducing risk to their trustees.

Back to the top