NTS Report 4 Aug 2010 - National Trust for Scotland

45
Getting Ready for What is to Come
environmental fields are clearly going to experience significant
budget cuts and efficiency savings. That, in turn, will impact on
their future relationships with the Trust.
In the short run, NTS must maximise efforts to ensure that
shortfalls in meeting targets under existing state programmes are
remedied. When future grants are discussed, previous Trust
performance will undoubtedly be a factor in reaching decisions.
There is opportunity in crisis as well, however. Under financial
pressure, the large agencies are likely to look more favourably
on partnerships and joined-up working in such areas as common
procurement, warehousing, marketing and ticketing. The
Enterprise and Tourism Committee of the Scottish Parliament is
committed to continue its pressure to ensure that the whole
sector adopts a ‘Team Scotland’ outlook.
Local authorities will also experience severe cuts. That may
leave them more open to local heritage attractions being
promoted and preserved by arms length partnerships,
particularly if these can draw down new social funding and show
that heritage can lead community regeneration.
The economic crisis is clearly going to impact on
personal spending.
In this area, the research presented to the Review is mixed.
Young families and old people alike will experience a drop in
their discretionary income. Legacies are likely to come later and
in smaller sums.
On the credit side, holidays overseas are likely to reduce. More
people will opt for a ‘staycation’ at home. And the fall in value
of the pound should increase the number of overseas visitors.
NTS should push VisitScotland for more promotion of the home
market and should market more day trips and specialist visits to,
for example, its gardens.
NTS should plan thoroughly for the impact of climate
change on its portfolio and core business.
Gardens will be much more prone to waterlogging. Georgian
downpipes may not be able to cope with the volume of rain. The
threat of storm damage to properties, both internally and
externally, has intensified.
And warmer, wetter summers are likely to produce ongoing
change in Scotland’s natural habitat.
NTS should thoroughly review its risk register in these areas at
both national and local level. It should reassure itself that it has
a sufficiency of ‘rainy day’ reserves in its General Funds.
Property managers should also be encouraged to put forward wet
weather proposals for visitors.
A question: if a Neolithic site is about to be submerged by the
sea, do they record it and let it go as part of the great sweep of
time? Or do they build walls and preserve it at all costs?
NTS should be ready to engage much more
thoroughly in the political process.
It is clear that a further tranche of powers, including fiscal
powers, is coming to the Scottish Parliament. The legislative
and regulatory framework within which the Trust works will be
decided there.
As a para-statal body, established by legislation to work for the
benefit of the nation, the Trust has currently only sporadic and
unfocused engagement with Scotland’s lawmakers.
It should be more proactive in making clear the benefits of its
work to the public purse and to the nation’s wellbeing. It should
make clear its core conservation purpose – the only holistic
portfolio of Scotland’s patrimony.
In an age when a sense of Scottishness has increased markedly,
the Trust should say clearly that it is our Heritage – our natural
and built environment – which give us our sense of place, time
and identity.
And, in tough times, the Trust should offer refreshment to the
nation.
It may, like the National Trust south of the Border, wish to point
to changing personal values on the far side of the economic
crisis. As the NT puts it: “Instead of material wealth or status,
we take comfort in family and community, places we love, the
appreciation of beauty, fresh air and a sense of kinship with each
other, with the past and with the natural world.”
The Futures Issues Group noted in its report that there is ‘little
capacity’ within NTS to undertake scenario planning at the
present time. It recommends strongly that such a group,
independent of management, should continue this work. The
Review asks Trustees to consider this proposal.
“Instead of material wealth or
status, we take comfort in family
and community, places we love,
the appreciation of beauty, fresh
air and a sense of kinship with
each other, with the past and with
the natural world.”
— the National Trust on the impact of the
economic crisis