Prime Minister appoints a new Trustee to the National Heritage Memorial Fund Board

The Prime Minister has appointed Jim Dixon as a new Trustee to the National Heritage Memorial Fund Board (NHMF).  He will be part of a 15-strong Board which runs both NHMF and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Its role is to steer the policy and direction of the two Funds and take decisions on grant applications. NHMF, the nation’s grant-in-aid fund of last resort for heritage, has a current annual budget of £4m – £5m. To date, HLF has awarded £5.9bn to 36,000 heritage projects across the UK. Its grant budget for 2013-14 is £375m.

About Jim Dixon

Jim has worked in the countryside for 30 years. He started as a biologist studying agricultural environments including arable and grassland. For nine years he led the RSPB’s national rural policy work, including a period when he represented over 200 conservation bodies on the EU Common Agricultural Policy advisory committee. He worked for English Nature, leading landscape-scale restoration, and then for Defra where he was part of the team who established the new Department in 2001.

In 2003 Jim was appointed to his current post of Chief Executive of the Peak District National Park Authority where he has championed work on landscapes, large-scale habitat management partnerships, rivers, cycling, the rural economy and communities. He has been lead officer for the 15 UK National Parks for 4 years.

Jim is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and a School Governor and has been appointed for three years from 1 October 2014

About National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF)

The National Heritage Memorial Fund was set up in 1980, to save the most outstanding parts of our national heritage, in memory of those who have given their lives for the United Kingdom. NHMF is due to receive £20m grant-in-aid from the Government between 2011 and 2015 allowing for an annual budget of £4m–£5m for distribution