Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation is gearing up for a landmark year as we enter the third year of Strategy 2028, building on strong progress across culture, learning, sustainability and community impact.
Despite facing really challenging financial pressures that are driven by rising costs of maintaining and managing the estate, the Heritage Foundation is planning an ambitious programme for 2026 focused on boosting financial resilience, improving services and delivering greater benefits for residents. We will be investing over £4m this year into a range of services, support and funding that benefit all of our residents.
Main Priorities for 2026
Value of the property maintenance programme planned for 2026
Financial resilience remains our central goal, with plans to reduce our commercial vacancies to 8%, complete a £4m maintenance programme and sell £8m–£12m of underperforming property assets to reinvest in stronger income growth investments. Work will also advance on the Town Plan and the LG1 housing development.
target increase in our customer service and satisfaction levels.
In Sustainable Conservation, a new online heritage application system will be launched, alongside initiatives encouraging greener home improvements and a targeted 10% rise in our customer satisfaction levels across the heritage advice service.
Our Nature & Wellbeing programmes will expand, including new Greenway improvements, nature-based learning and a dedicated wellbeing pathway to encourage more people to better wellbeing outdoors.
The Great Place to Grow Up vision will see the Play! Discover! Share! programme grow further, with a goal of engaging more than 4,000 young people and launching a new youth collective, providing a unique voice for young people across the town.
targeted venue visits across Broadway Cinema & Theatre, Standalone Farm, Broadway Gallery and the Museum at One Garden City.
Across Culture & Leisure, the Heritage Foundation aims to submit a £5m bid for a new Arts & Heritage Centre, achieve 230,000 venue visits across Broadway Cinema & Theatre, Standalone Farm, Broadway Gallery and our Micro Museum. We forecast a growth in income of 20%. We will also be developing Letchworth’s 125th anniversary celebrations with active community involvement, and leading the bid for Letchworth Garden City to become UK Town of Culture in 2028!
families will benefit from free summer activities.
Work in Poverty & Prosperity will support residents through our funded programmes with Citizens Advice delivering £430k of income maximisation support to residents, free summer activities for 1,500 families and piloting new employment initiatives.
Strengthening the Foundation
Eight enabling workstreams - including sustainability, communications and marketing, HR, IT, fundraising and volunteering - will drive improvements behind the scenes, from better digital systems to expanded volunteer programmes.
A Transformational Year Ahead
With major opportunities on the horizon, including the arrival of the TCPA archive and preparations for the town’s 125th anniversary, 2026 is set to be a pivotal year.
