The National Trust “is totally unregulated, except by itself” as well as being “autocratic” and “out-of-touch”, the House of Lords heard yesterday during a debate on the role of charities and trade unions.
Lord Patten, the former Conservative education secretary, said in the House of Lords yesterday that the Trust has “accumulated holdings that no Whig magnate in our house in the 18th century could ever have dreamed of accumulating”, yet claimed that it “is totally unregulated, except by itself”.
Patten, who was speaking as part of a debate in the House of Lords over the role of charities and trade unions, called the Trust a “landed leviathan” and said “the Trust needs to be better regulated”.
Patten also said that the “National Trust seems to have developed a new line in what can only be called autocratic and out-of-touch behaviour”. He claimed that in 2016, the Trust have produced a “positive blizzard of lobbying and a maelstrom of demands and advice”.
Patten also criticised the Trust over its recent “terrible publicity”, particularly in relation to its purchase of a farm in the Lake District.
The Trust was accused in The Times of “dictatorial bullying” and using tactics “straight out of the mafia”, in the way the acquired he farm by broadcaster and Lord Bragg.
Patten concluded by proposing that Lord Bragg be appointed as an “independent chairman” for an “independent commission into the National Trust” which would “look at the Trust to make sure that it indeed acts in the national interest, cleaving to its statutory and charitable origins”.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth defended the Trust and said he was “very surprised by the bitter criticism of the National Trust” by Patten.
He also said that “campaigning groups and charities play an essential role in making our democracy vibrant and living and their ability to do this should not be inhibited in any way”.
The National Trust have been contacted for a comment.
The National Trust is a registered charity, and is therefore regulated by the Charity Commission.
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