HMS Victory Gets Five Million To Secure Future

21 June 2013, 11:01 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

It's been revealed that the Royal Navy's oldest commissioned warship, the HMS Victory, is being given £5 million pounds to help secure its long term future.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller visited Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard today (Friday 21st June) where she announced that following last year's £25 million pound donation, the National Museum of the Royal Navy has now been awarded an additional £5 million of match funding support from Government, as part of the Catalyst Endowment initiative.

The money will be used to help secure the long term future of HMS Victory, the Royal Navy's oldest commissioned warship, and is based at the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth.

The Catalyst Endowment programme is a joint initiative between the Departure for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The programme is designed to bring new money into the cultural sector, by offering match-funding to help arts and heritage organisations secure their financial stability.

Speaking about the importance of support for regional Arts and Culture this morning, Mrs Miller said: "This is a fantastic result for HMS Victory. Demand for Catalyst endowment grants has exceeded all forecasts, and the match funding provided by my Department, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England has encouraged donors to come forward, and to build the endowments which will provide a long-term source of income to some of our greatest cultural institutions."

The Catalyst Endowment Initiative has so far raised £24,658,204 from private donations, with Heritage Lottery Fund and ACE then providing match-funding to the tune of £11,733,720. When all of the original match-fundraising campaigns have been completed, that investment will have raised at least a further £106 million of new money from private donors.