The National Trust has revealed plans to cut its workforce by 6%, around 550 jobs, in an effort to save £26m from its annual wage bill.
The conservation charity said it is making the cuts due to increasing costs outpacing its yearly growth in donations and visitors to its sites across the country.
Recent increases to employer’s national insurance and minimum wage rates have added £10m to the National Trust’s annual wage bill, the charity said in a statement.
After announcing a freeze on recruitment earlier this year in response to the rises, the charity has now opened a 45-day consultation with its staff on the proposed job cuts.
The charity said its headcount was 9,575 as of February this year, so the 6% reduction would broadly equate to 550 full-time equivalent members of staff.
In its most recently filed accounts for the year to February 2024, the National Trust recorded an operating deficit of £43.9m.
‘We always want to avoid job losses’
The National Trust said it aimed to minimise compulsory redundancies.
“We know how difficult this is for our people and are incredibly grateful for their skill and professionalism,” it said.
“We are working hard, with the union Prospect, to make the transition as painless as possible. This follows months of other cost-saving measures. We always want to avoid job losses.”
The charity said it remained committed to its new 10-year strategy, in which it pledged to restore 250,000 more hectares of “nature-rich landscapes” and peatland and to fundraise more in the next decade than in the previous century.
“The National Trust has existed for so long because it keeps adapting and planning for the long term,” its statement added.
“The proposed changes will allow us to keep on caring for and championing our shared historic and natural environment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, long into the future.”
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