Click the image to read the National Trust’s Strategic Plan
Learn more about the National Trust’s strategic vision.
On March 23, The National Trust released its new 10-year strategic plan, which will inform our shared work for the next decade. Titled “Playing Our Part,” the plan builds upon the Trust’s substantial accomplishments in historic preservation and environmental conservation to reaffirm its commitment —one shared with The Royal Oak Foundation— to protecting and making accessible to the public places of historic and natural significance.
The strategy is aligned with the Trust’s 120 year-long history of responding to the critical issues of its time; from preserving urban green spaces and countryside to rescuing the country house. To that end, “Playing Our Part” lays out four contemporary issues urgently calling for the Trust’s leadership. These are:
Looking after our places
- The National Trust will spend around £1bn over the next ten years on the conservation of our houses, gardens and countryside, including £300m on clearing the backlog of repairs.
- The Trust will continue to play its part in mitigating climate change: cutting energy usage by 20% by 2020 and sourcing 50% of that from renewable sources on Trust-held land.
Healthy, beautiful natural environment
- Develop new economic models of land use to share with others and champion the role of nature in our lives.
- Work with tenant farmers to improve all our land to a good condition.
- Work with other organizations to conserve and renew the nation’s most important landscapes.
Experiences of our places that move, teach and inspire
- People’s tastes are changing and their expectations continue to grow. The Trust will work harder to give our visitors experiences that are emotionally rewarding, intellectually stimulating and inspire them to support preservation.
- The Trust will invest in major changes at its most visited houses to transform how it tells the story of why the place mattered in the past and why it matters today.
Helping to look after the places people live
- Budget cuts mean that many public green spaces enjoyed by local communities are now under threat. The Trust will explore what role it could play in helping safeguard their future.
- The Trust will also look at ways of supporting local heritage impacted by spending cuts and play a leadership role in the annual Heritage Open Days, the country’s most popular heritage event.
The library at Stourhead, Wiltshire
Dame Helen Ghosh, the Trust’s Director-General, said: “Our strategy calls on the National Trust to respond to these threats and play its part in new ways: achieving a step change in how we look after our own countryside, and reaching out to partners and communities beyond our boundaries to meet the challenges we face at this moment in our history.
“This is a long-term commitment, for the benefit of generations to come: we know that many of our changes will take thirty years or more.”
Chairman Tim Parker added: “The National Trust has always responded to the challenges of the time. I believe our founders would be proud of our ambitions and the part we plan to play.”
The next ten years will help define the direction of conservation and preservation for the 21st century, and The Royal Oak Foundation is proud to work with the National Trust in providing leadership during this critical period. We are committed to our shared work of protecting both historic homes and treasures and the natural environment , which is integral to understanding and experiencing them.
