New Directions for the National Trust?
A Venerable British Institution Considers its Future
Oct 29, 2008
The National Trust is one of Britain’s best-known and most respected charities. Established in 1895 to preserve places of historic interest or natural beauty, the organisation has built up an impressive membership and a portfolio of iconic buildings and natural landscapes.
Preserving Britain’s Heritage
In 2007 the membership reached a new landmark at 3.5 million. Perhaps more remarkable, 50,000 members work as volunteers, guiding visitors around the Trust’s 300 castles, stately homes and gardens, maintaining footpaths around the 700 miles of coast owned by the Trust and helping out with its numerous other properties and its many worthy campaigns in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The National Trust for Scotland is a separate body.
The National Trust’s name is closely linked with quality, from its high standards in caring for its property to the specially commissioned products in its shops, its publications and its extensive photographic library. Few would argue that the Trust has not fulfilled its original mandate.
Restructuring the National Trust
But the Trust has not always had a smooth ride. It remained a peripheral and rather elitist organisation until the 1960s, when a public spat about its role and direction led to a radical and ultimately beneficial shake up. The membership quadrupled from 1970 to 1980, and doubled again to reach two million by 1990.
In 2000 there was another round of restructuring, and eight years later the organisation continues to question and redefine its role. It believes recent social and political changes require more outreach to communities beyond the Trust’s traditional middle class base. New and growing concerns about rural life, the environment and especially the changing climate are leading the Trust to consider more aggressive action and, inevitably, some controversial positions.
The Trust has already changed. Its 2001 London Links and the Inner City project in Newcastle were designed to raise the profile of environmental and heritage issues within urban areas. It has supported eco-tourism, for example developing footpaths and cycle routes around Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, the first nature reserve that the Trust acquired in 1899.
New Directions and Partnerships for the National Trust
It has launched projects, as at Trevan Farm in west Cornwall, to test the financial viability of farming methods designed to protect wildlife, sharing experience and results with neighbouring farmers. It promotes training for traditional rural crafts like stone masonry. It supports farm shops all over the country as part of its campaign for local food, an issue close to the heart of the Trust’s President, Prince Charles.
The Trust funds studies of looming environmental problems such as the stresses on the nation’s water supply systems. It has initiated more open dialogues with its own staff, its members and the general public to help chart its course. And it is engaged with increasing numbers of partnerships, with businesses like nPower in support of “green energy”, and with environmental groups like Sustrans in support of sustainable transport systems.
Challenging the Eco-Towns
And yet surveys of the membership, which far exceeds the combined size of Britain’s three main political parties, indicate that the Trust could do more to promote its core values and defend the countryside.
Sir William Proby, the outgoing Chairman of the Trust, has robustly challenged the Government’s plans to build a number of “eco-towns” in unspoiled rural areas. In an interview with The Times newspaper in 2007 he threatened to use the Trust’s considerable financial muscle to acquire enough land in East Anglia to undermine the construction programme.
New Chairman of the National Trust
The veteran journalist Simon Jenkins will take over the chairmanship at the 2008 annual general meeting in Liverpool on 1st November. He is expected to adopt a similarly robust approach to issues like the proposed expansion of Heathrow and Stansted airports and the construction of wind turbines in or close to areas of natural beauty.
The National Trust is waking up to the fact that its traditional concerns now matter in a more fundamental, urgent way than they once seemed to, and that, when it cares to, it can pack a substantial punch. Expect the Trust to continue growing steadily, in its membership, its assets and in its confidence as it lobbies for values that it considers have drifted too far towards the edge of the nation’s consciousness.
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