The Art Newspaper

Review recommends the National Trust Scotland conducts urgent audit

The troubled conservation organisation “has no single record of what it owns”

By Gareth Harris. Web only
Published online: 31 August 2010

National Trust of Scotland president Duke of Buccleuch (left) with George Reid, the former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament who led the review into the NTS

A nine-month strategic review of the National Trust Scotland (NTS), which owns 130 properties, recommends that the troubled conservation organisation urgently conducts an audit and full property portfolio review. George Reid, the former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament who led the review, criticised the lack of a complete inventory of NTS assets. “It has no single record of what it owns. It does not know the cost of repairing and maintaining its estate. Its current budget was prepared on a needs-must basis. That is not a sustainable position,” he said.

Reid also recommended focusing on “a smaller core portfolio of properties”, proposing that ancillary NTS sites “be managed by others through guardianship, tenancy and partnerships”. An NTS spokeswoman subsequently pointed out that the review does not recommend selling “heritage properties the NTS holds on behalf of the nation”. Other recommendations include reducing the number of NTS trustees from 87 to 15.

The trust’s council endorsed the review at a meeting in Glasgow in August. An NTS cost-cutting exercise last year resulted in 45 redundancies and the closure of three venues, including Hutchesons’ Hall in Glasgow.