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Union warns National Trust Scotland may collapse

Finance | Gareth Jones | 6 May 2009

Plans to tackle the financial crisis at the National Trust for Scotland will lead to the "rapid breakdown of key parts of the organisation” and make the Trust unviable, says a new report from trade union Prospect.

In a 12-page paper to the NTS board dated 20 April, the union argues that further staffing cuts will “wound the organisation in a way that could easily turn out to be fatal”.

It calls on the Trust’s leadership team (including chief executive Kate Mavor, pictured) to seek help from the Scottish government as well as from its membership and supporters, to give the “breathing space to work out a sustainable future”.

Report authors the Prospect Redundancy Team wrote: “The Trust is having conversations with the Scottish Government about the situation, but we are not convinced that these discussions are revealing the extent of the crisis: the Trust is on its knees, and the government cannot afford for the organisation to fail.

“If we were a plc we would already be bankrupt and in receivership; that is the proposition that the Scottish government need to be aware of, and of the impact that would have on all the positive contributions the Trust makes towards Scotland’s economy, tourism, education and quality of life.”

Accusations of mismanagement

The paper is critical of a number of aspects of the Trust’s management. It highlights the creation and then abandonment of financial initiatives such as the ‘three-year plan’ and the ‘Path to Break Even’.

“Staff pointed out the deficiencies of each of these at the time, and take no satisfaction in having been proved right.

“Given that track record, which has led the organisation into even deeper and more pressing crisis, staff will need strong reassurance that the architects and implementers of these failed plans are the right people to lead us out of the current, critical predicament and into a sustainable future.”

It also claims the Trust’s auditors have said NTS is “on the brink of not being a going concern”, and calls this a “shocking indictment of recent financial management”.

A spokeswoman for NTS said: “As a charity, we must satisfy auditors annually that we are a going concern and have done so without issue over the past few years, and have no reason to believe that will not be the case this year.

“We will continue to take the action needed to ensure that the Trust is financially secure in future.”

Last week NTS released a Q&A on its website to inform members about the crisis.

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