NTS Report 4 Aug 2010 - National Trust for Scotland

22
The State of the Estate
NTS must know the cost of maintaining its properties
When Sir John Stirling Maxwell in the 1930s described the
charity as “a sort of cabinet into which could be put valuable
things”, he could not have imagined how jam-packed it would be
in the 21st century.
Today the Trust owns 130 accessible properties, hundreds of
buildings – including byres, bungalows and sheds – over 30
gardens, a number of islands, around 200,000 acres of some of
the grandest landscapes in Scotland, colonies of bats and birds,
valuable paintings, exquisite furniture and a whole range of
artefacts.
The vast majority were acquired without adequate endowment
and, probably, in a number of cases, without proper
consideration of how – or whether – they fitted the Trust’s
overall portfolio and profile. In his submission to the Review,
one former Board member writes: “Sentimentality rather than
sense seems to have been the order of the day when
opportunities for property acquisitions arose.”
Extraordinary as it may seem for an organisation founded as
long ago as 1 May 1931, NTS has no single inventory of what
it owns.
Nor does it know how much it will cost to maintain its
portfolio in reasonable order over the medium to long term.
The Trust does have lists covering nearly all its possessions, of
course. But they are held in separate data bases, filing systems
and indexes by different departments working to different
standards. The Trust does know what it is spending on its estate.
But it does not know what it should be spending on its estate.
Only in a few cases is the information robust enough to
establish, with any certainty, a forward budget for a property.
In the course of the Review the Chief Executive committed to
establishing a single inventory of assets by September 2010. We
warmly endorse that decision as the start of a longer and more
complete review of the state of the estate.
The Review also received submissions that any future NTS
inventory should be GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
based, integrating cartographic and data base technologies.
We have taken the view that establishing such a system would
take years and is currently far beyond its current resources. It
may, however, be an option in future years – particularly if
proposals to establish a GIS-based single register of all
Scotland’s heritage assets are taken forward at national level.
An inventory is not an audit, however. And an audit is only
one stage of a fuller planning process.
For the last few years the Trust has been funding only essential
works, and not been in a financial position to maintain the estate
much beyond that. This is not ideal, and has also created a
tremendous backlog of maintenance and repairs, which has built
up over time.
The Trust must get to know and understand its estate better, both
in terms of the condition of its heritage assets and the cost of
ensuring assets are kept in a reasonable condition. A thorough
audit is therefore essential to determine the magnitude of
financial demands which the charity is likely to need to meet in
the future.
Whilst work is currently being carried out by senior
management, we believe that this analysis is so critical to the
long term strategic direction of the Trust that it requires external
advice and validation.
The Review strongly supports proposals that NTS conducts a
full audit of its properties and major collections in order to
assess their condition and associated costs.
The Board should
appoint an expert panel
as soon as possible after
the 2010 AGM. It
should agree a mandate
with them to develop
with staff, at national
and local levels, a
common matrix for an
audit of all assets –
including short, medium
and long term priorities – practical and pragmatic levels of
maintenance and conservation, staffing and other resource
requirements. These must be fully costed out.
While it is recognised that this work may take several years to
complete fully, the Trustees should ensure annual updates to
members at the AGM from 2011 onwards.
The Review has received indications of assistance, some on a
pro-bono basis, from professional companies working in
surveying and maintenance. It is possible, however, that a
specific appeal may have to be considered to resource the audit
work thoroughly.