The government has unveiled a £1.5bn package of funding for arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings.

This includes £760m for museums. Of this £600m will be made available to help national museums to tackle critical maintenance work.

Local museums will be handed £160m to manage maintenance backlogs. This includes a £13.6m Museum Transformation programme to help charities and others running museums to improve their sustainable business models.

The pot of funding also includes £425m Creative Foundations Fund to support around 300 capital projects in arts venues.

“This is an essential investment in our communities, creating opportunities for local people and boosting the potential of our local economies. Millions of people up and down the country will benefit from this,” said Joshua McTaggert, chief executive of Theatres Trust.

There is also £230m being made available to protect heritage and religious buildings, including £75m in grants to carry out repairs and £46m through a Heritage Revival Fund, to bring unused local heritage buildings back into public use.

In announcing the arts and heritage funding package culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “This funding will keep the doors open and the lights on at thousands of arts organisations, museums, libraries and heritage buildings that might otherwise have been at real risk of closing.

“It will unlock opportunities for millions of people who have been shut out for far too long. That is the Britain we are rebuilding.”

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