Lottery money could flow into the preservation of Kingston’s history after the heritage lottery fund (HLF) said it was making the borough a “geographical priority area”, after discovering it received an average of just £30,000-a-year.

The organisation’s £180m annual grants make it the largest funder of the UK’s heritage, and it targeted Kingston after a review of London areas showed it had not received a fair level of grants.

Councillor Ian Reid, lead member for libraries and the museum service, said: “This is excellent news. ‘Leafy Kingston’ is finally being recognised as having been left out of funding projects which celebrate our local history and culture.

“We have already received just under £80,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Muybridge projects and a local history archive in partnership with the local university, and are awaiting the outcome of a third bid.”

Projects in the borough received £443,216 since the heritage lottery fund was established in 1994, but the fund said it did not allocate money per borough and blamed a low level of applications from organisations in Kingston for the borough’s poor funding levels.

The fund is preparing a “development priority implementation plan” to support its focus on Kingston, and plans to meet the council and voluntary groups to find potential projects in the area.

An HLF spokesman said: “The London development team will spend more time on the ground in Kingston supporting potential grant applicants develop their project ideas. This will be in the form of participation in local meetings and network events, and one to one meetings with organisations that have submitted pre-applications to HLF.”

A conference will be held at the Rose Theatre on April 28.

John McCarthy, vice-chairman of the Friends of Kingston Museum and Heritage service, said: “I absolutely welcome it. If it is going to encourage more people to make applications then it is worthwhile.

“It might make people more aware, and the heritage people might say they can give people assistance in filling in forms.

“I think it’s a little chicken and egg because the heritage lottery fund only respond to applications.”

The HLF said it was looking for ideas related to Kingston’s heritage, such as buildings, parks, biodiversity and people’s memories, and urged people with ideas to work with the council or not-for-profit organisations to submit a pre-application to the development team.

It said the team would then arrange a meeting in Kingston to discuss the project and give advice. See hlf.org.uk for application details.