Last week, Dundee City Council opened a public consultation on its 2025-26 budget, where the public can submit their proposals on how council funds should be used next year. 

This includes support for a wide range of services, including tourism, culture, and heritage – from our peers at Dundee Science Centre, to UNESCO City of Design Dundee, to Dundee Rep and Dundee Contemporary Arts.  

It also refers to support given to specific charities in the city to help provide these services. The annual grant received by Dundee Heritage Trust is one of them. This grant, amounting to 2% of the charity’s annual income, is nonetheless vital to our work in Dundee. 

UPDATE: The Dundee City Council Public Budget Consultation 2025-26 is now CLOSED.

However, you can still have your say by contacting your local or regional MSP to ask that Dundee Heritage Trust receives the equitable funding it needs.

You can reach your MSP by email at:

• Shona Robison,  MSP for Dundee City East,  dundee@shona.robison@scot
• Joe Fitzpatrick,  MSP for Dundee City West,   joe.fitzpatrick.msp@parliament.scot
• Michael Marra,  MSP for North East Scotland (Region),   michael.marra.msp@parliament.scot

Why do we need public funding?

Dundee Heritage Trust (Dundee Industrial Heritage) is the guardian of two of the city’s best-loved heritage attractions: Discovery Point and the RRS Discovery and Verdant Works Museum, together welcoming over 65,000 visitors every year. It is also, overwhelmingly, an independently funded charity — with the other 98% of our income painstakingly raised from museum admissions, hospitality, retail, and fundraising, relying on your support to keep our doors open and our mission alive. 

Yet, since the pandemic, the energy crisis, inflation, and ongoing pressures on the cost of living, this has become an existential challenge. The loss of our grant from Dundee City Council, while seemingly small, would threaten our recovery and put our vital work at risk. 

We are proud to make a real impact here in Dundee. We provide Fair Work opportunities and a Real Living Wage to over 40 staff, offer educational tours and workshops for over 3,700 schoolchildren each year, host dynamic exhibitions and events for local people and families, and punch well above our weight in terms of economic impact — bringing tens of thousands of visitors to explore and spend in the city each year, supporting the livelihood of many more local people. 

Now at a critical moment for the future of the charity, we cannot afford to lose this funding. 

If our efforts to establish a more sustainable model are hindered, or current urgent conservation work aboard the RRS Discovery is forced to stop, the ship will be at risk of critical degradation within a decade. This loss would be unthinkable for Dundee. 

The Dundee City Council Public Budget Consultation 2025-26 is now CLOSED.

Instead, please consider contacting your local or regional MSP to express your support of our charity. Thank you.

For more information about the charity’s existing efforts and successes in cutting our costs and increasing our incomes over the last several years, please get in touch.