WHAT’S THE STORY?

SCOTLAND’S largest conservation charity the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), which is the guardian of vast parts of Scotland’s heritage, has announced that all 492 staff in its permanent workforce are at risk of redundancy. NTS has confirmed it is seeking to sell “non-heritage land and property”.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the closure of all NTS sites and now the charity is seeking government aid and will launch an emergency appeal for £2.7 million as it faces a loss of £28m in income.

Speculation has included the possible sale of Bute House, official residence of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon whose private rooms occupy the top two floors of the building that dates back to 1793.

With Historic Environment Scotland having closed all its sites, Scotland’s built heritage and history is effectively off limits for the foreseeable future. It does seem that at least some NTS properties will be sold off to raise funds for the embattled charity.

IS THIS AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS FOR NTS?

IT would seem so. Here’s what NTS chief executive Simon Skinner had to say: “The extreme and unprecedented public health emergency has put the charity’s future in doubt.

“This is despite us running the trust in a financially prudent way, building up our reserves, and latterly taking critical decisions at the outset of this crisis, reducing our expenditure to a minimum, foregoing the recruitment of seasonal staff, terminating temporary and fixed-term contracts and furloughing a large proportion of our permanent staff.”

NTS hopes to start a “phased” re-opening later this year but this will involve just 27 properties and with a further 18 possibly opening next year, the current losses are unlikely to be much mitigated.

NTS president Neil Oliver isn’t everyone’s cup of tea due to his Unionist pronouncements, but we must wish him and chairman Sir Mark Jones – former director of the National Museums of Scotland – and all their staff the very best of Scottish luck at this time.

WHAT’S BEEN THE DAMAGE SO FAR?

THE charity’s estate and holiday accommodation has been closed since March to comply with Scottish Government instructions, meaning that its income has been virtually eradicated during what is normally the busiest period for membership recruitment and property visits.

In addition, the stock market’s downturn has really hammered NTS investments, with the reported loss of £48m in its portfolio.

HOW LONG HAS NTS BEEN GOING?

NTS can trace its roots to a 1931 meeting held in Pollok House in Glasgow which is still managed by NTS. Originally called The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, it was established on the initiative of Pollok House’s owner Sir John Stirling Maxwell. Obviously the idea came from the National Trust in England which was originally designed as a pan-UK body but never acquired any property in Scotland before 1929 when the Association for the Preservation – now Protection of Rural Scotland – first mooted the idea of NTS. Two Acts of Parliament in the 1930s gave NTS the powers it needed to raise funds and preserve places, buildings and objects.

CAN THEY REALLY KICK OUT THE FIRST MINISTER?

PROBABLY not. NTS has pledged to retain all heritage sites and properties, and it could be argued that Bute House at 6 Charlotte Square – which was given with number 5 and 7 Charlotte Square to NTS in 1966 in part-payment of death duties on the estate of the 5th Marquess of Bute – is very much part of the nation’s heritage, having been the official residence of the Secretary of State for Scotland and then the First Minister for 50 years. It also earns NTS £70,000 a year in rental payments made by the Scottish Government, so flogging it would seem an unlikely option.

Put it this way, if Nicola Sturgeon was in danger of losing her official residence, a crowdfunder among her many supporters would raise the shortfall.

WHAT COULD GO?

THEORETICALLY everything NTS owns. That’s 1500 buildings, including 127 listed buildings, plus almost 70 gardens and 76,000 hectares of countryside – but there are several locations which are cannot be sold for varying reasons.

The battlefields of Bannockburn and Culloden are sacred to Scotland and will stay as NTS heritage sites. The NTS visitor centres at each site are also cash earners so there seem no chance the battlefields will be sold, neither will the Glenfinnan Monument.

Likewise the dozen castles – including Falkland Palace – owned by NTS are very much heritage assets, and as listed buildings of the highest quality there’s virtually nothing any purchaser could do with them.

For various reasons Glencoe, Kintail, Ben Lomond and Ben Lawers, the Fair Isle, the Falls of Glomach, Dollar Glen, the Isle of Staffa, Iona, Canna, and Mingulay and the Mar Lodge Estate – the UK’s largest national nature reserve – are all highly unlikely to be sold, as is St Kilda, Scotland’s first World Heritage Site.

Most likely to be sold are NTS “homes”, such as the 360 flats, cottages and lodge houses which NTS has developed over the year on various estates, plus around 60 holiday homes.