At the 2024 AGM the National Trust once again used the Quick Vote to get all the choices of the Nominations Committee and Trustees voted in, so that the views of the members made no difference whatever. Turnout in the Council elections fell by 55% since 2023. Fewer than half as many members turned out to elect the Council than did last year. Why the steep drop? Two things were done differently.

Firstly, the National Trust’s management encouraged all members to apply to be on the ballot, without explaining how slender the chances were to get the all-important backing of the Nominations Committee, which meant that the vast majority of the 127 candidates on the ballot had no hope of being elected.

Secondly, paper AGM booklets were not sent to all members, but only to those who applied before 11 October. Does this matter if most members vote online anyway? Yes, it does matter. Even though most members like to vote online, the paper booklet is a valuable aid to reading and making sense of a large number of candidate statements. There are also members who do not use the internet, and making it more complicated for them to vote effectively disenfranchises them.

Is the National Trust’s management serious about engaging members in its democratic process? Or is is just interested in winning? Meaningful democracy means trusting the members and making it easier for them to make up their own minds, not pre-packaging the voting outcomes that the management wants to see.

We supported these outstandingly able and qualified candidates for the National Trust’s Council in 2024

  • Philip Gibbs

    “My lifetime passionate interest has been visiting historic houses, gardens and landscapes. My career was analysing and advising business and I have been a trustee supporting heritage bodies and active in many others.”

    "If elected I shall campaign strongly to restore the democratic rights of National Trust members and overturn the Quick vote, recently condemned by a former Trust chairman, whereby members are invited to just put one cross to support Trust-recommended candidates and resolutions, without needing to investigate who or what they are voting for. How on earth can this be squared with genuine democracy and our motto of for everyone? The Trust should strive to avoid controversy, such as this and one sparked by excluding Christmas and Easter from a volunteer calendar."

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  • Colin Kerr

    is Director of Finance of The Children’s Trust, a charity which provides specialised care for children with brain injury. He was previously Director of External Relations at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, where he led the  major First World War centenary events.

    He established partnerships with the Foreign Office, British Council, Royal British Legion, MoD and Department of Culture Media and Sport and 250 community groups in the UK, promoting visits to local war graves sites.

    “The challenges of conserving a priceless heritage and in continuing to be relevant to the public, without compromising intellectual or aesthetic standards.

    As a successful director, I understand the importance of achieving strategic targets through building consensus.

    The National Trust should create a clearer pathway to driving public engagement, underpinned by a strong financial strategy and a world class commitment to conservation while maintaining good relationships with tenants and local communities."

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  • Prof. Lawrence Goldman

    is the former director the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. He is an Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford.

    His books include Dons and Workers: Oxford and Adult Education Since 1850 (Clarendon Press, 1995), Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian Britain: The Social Science Association 1857–1886 (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Victorians and Numbers: Statistics and Society in Nineteenth Century Britain (Oxford University Press, 2022) and From art to politics: John Ruskin and William Morris (William Morris Society, 2005).

    " I wish to make the Trust’s presentation of history as accurate and balanced as possible. There should also be trust in the Trust itself, which must be transparent, democratic and accountable to its members and the public."

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  • Dr Bijan Omrani 

    is an Honorary Associate Research Fellow in Classics and Ancient History at the  University of Exeter. He is a school governor, church warden and co-director of a literary festival. His books include Asia Overland: Tales of travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road (Odyssey, 2010) and Caesar’s Footprints: Journeys to Roman Gaul, (Head of Zeus, 2017).

    "I have experience of presenting history to non-specialist audiences, making it engaging without passing over its complexity.

    In an increasingly confusing world, historic buildings and landscapes should play their part in helping communities to forge a common identity, for those who are new to this country as well as those who have been here a long time.

    Members should feel confident that their votes make a difference. The Quick vote box on the ballot risks undermining that confidence. I would like to see the Council election process made as simple and fair as it can be."

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  • Dr Tiffany Jenkins

    is the author of Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums - And Why They Should Stay There (OUP, 2016). Her next book: Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life, will be published by Picador.

    "With over two decades of experience as a cultural historian, consultant and writer, I offer a wealth of knowledge for this role. I oppose preferential Council nominations and the ‘Quick vote’ system, advocating membership empowerment.

    I’m concerned about divisive practices that alienate members and deter supporters. Cultivating consensus on purpose and policy is vital for membership growth and sustaining support for the Trust’s mission.

    The Trust requires steadfast leadership that avoids chasing passing fads and maintains its buildings and gardens to the highest standards. We owe it to past and future generations to understand history with scholarship, curiosity, passion and fun.

    I aim to bridge existing divisions regarding the Trust’s core mission, earning the trust of both management and members. By emphasising common goals, I aspire to foster unity and collaboration within the organisation."

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  • Patrick Streeter

    is a Chartered Accountant. He is a trustee and former chairman of the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust. He was involved in the campaigns to save the Bishopsgate Goods-yard arches and Spitalfields Market. He was a Councillor in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for eight years.

    "I believe the British country house is a work of art and it should be conserved, explained, set in context but not interfered with.

    There are many views on how the Trust should be run and everyone should work together so that all may enjoy this national asset. I am experienced in working with people with different points of view to achieve a common aim.

    The National Trust should building a reputation as the foremost custodian of historic buildings, works of art, gardens and countryside, and setting high expectations. AGM voting must take place on a visibly even playing field, which means reconsidering the ‘Quick vote’.

    I have seen many neglected and damaged buildings brought back to life and become much-loved focal points for communities. The Trust need to re-think its plans for Clandon Park and aim high."

    Read More

We supported these organisations for election as appointing bodies to bring more expertise on historic buildings and representation of farmers to the Council:

The Georgian Group

The Victorian Society

The Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA)

The Gardens Trust

Historic Houses

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU

The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE)

Dear Members and supporters of the National Trust

We believe in the National Trust and its mission to look after our heritage. This means that we cannot stand by as the charity strays from its objectives to take on irrelevant fashionable causes while alienating its members and the public.

In 2020 we saw the National Trust lose confidence in its task of looking after historic houses on our behalf. The ‘Mansion Report’ dismissed the appreciation of these wonderful places as an ‘outdated mansion experience’ and you and us as a ‘loyal but dwindling audience’. In the same year the charity waded into the deep and controversial waters of critical social justice with the publication of the poorly-researched report on slavery and colonialism. This was a clumsy attempt to set the world to rights in an area where the National Trust had neither the mandate nor the expertise. It didn’t help that the 2023 ‘Inclusion and Wellbeing Calendar’ reminded volunteers of the dates of Diwali, Eid and Hanukkah, but made no mention of Christmas or Easter.

The loss of focus and of confidence among the National Trust’s management has led to a cavalier approach to historic houses. Clandon Park House was gutted by fire in 2015. Instead of responding with a coherent plan to rebuild this important masterpiece and raise the necessary funds, the National Trust first dithered and then abandoned the project. The charity now intends to spend the £66 million insurance payout on an unsympathetic scheme which leaves the house as a blackened ruin and introduces trendy structures held up with steel. These will quickly become dated as faddish buildings inevitably do. Those in charge of the project claim that the ruin is a ‘powerful space’ with ‘raw beauty’, but we can all see for ourselves that the Emperor is stark naked. The Director-General of the National Trust dismissed a restored interior for Clandon as ‘plastic pastiche’, an insult to the work of Britain’s finest conservation practitioners.

Meanwhile, Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire, a fine and important Restoration house, has been dumbed down into a children’s theme park, its rooms strewn with toys and idiotic cartoon speech bubbles. This does not encourage children to value historic buildings. The National Trust wants to engage younger audiences, but what is more likely to inspire the next generation - a dumbed-down version or the real thing? To make matters worse, the local football team has been told it can no longer use the field in front of the house, even though it was given by Lord Vernon specifically for sports teams to play on.

Alastair Laing, a curator with a long and distinguished career at the National Trust and a member of Restore Trust’s Advisory Board who died recently summed the frustration many of us feel about the National Trust’s approach to historic houses when he said,

The present need always to tell stories somehow diminishes the emphasis on the houses, their inhabitants, and the collections for their own sake.

Then there are the volunteers, the people who give their time freely to keep properties open and help make visits special with their knowledge and passion. Many have been subject to irrelevant and politicised training, are treated less considerately and have had their autonomy undermined. It is no surprise that volunteer numbers have plummeted and many properties are partially closed as a result.

Another problem is the skewing of AGM votes with the use of the Quick Vote. In 2024 those of us who are members of the National Trust has the opportunity to elect six members of the governing Council as well as the eighteen bodies which appoint the non-elected members. We were asked to vote on resolutions. The management of the National Trust offered us the easy option of voting for all their choices, regardless of whether we have studied the options, by simply ticking the ‘Quick Vote’ box. The former Chairman of the National Trust Sir William Proby has described the use of the Quick Vote as ‘not credible’ and Lord Sumption has called it ‘a North Korean approach’. Each year we ask members not to take the short cut, but take the time and carry out their responsibility thoroughly. All of us who are members need to put in the effort to give this beloved charity the best possible leadership and expertise.

The Quick Vote block vote is dressed up as a convenient option for members, but in reality it skews the outcome of the vote dramatically by being the first and the easiest option on the ballot. Since it was introduced in 2022 no candidate who was not endorsed by the management has been elected to the Council. And to make an independent choice even more difficult, in 2024 there were 127 candidates on the ballot. The choice was be between reading all their statements or just ticking that Quick Vote box. Most members had to navigate this huge amount of material on a screen, as the paper booklet is now sent out on request only.

This is why we put forward the members’ resolution below calling for a vote on the further use of the Quick Vote which does not use the Quick Vote. Our resolution did not appear on the ballot, because the hierarchy of the National Trust rejected it without any discussion. In 2023 our resolution to abolish the Quick Vote came close to passing even though, ironically, the Quick Vote block vote was cast against it. 60,327 members voted to abolish the Quick Vote and the resolution was narrowly defeated (by 53.6% to 46.4%) thanks to the 41% of members’ votes which were cast en bloc, via the Quick Vote, against it.  Approximately three quarters of members who cast their ballots themselves (i.e. did not use the Quick Vote) voted for the Quick Vote’s abolition. Now we need to find out whether the members really want a mechanism on their ballot which would never be allowed in public or trade union votes. Members should have their say through a fair vote, not a ballot which strongly favours one outcome over the other. The management of the National Trust does not want to know the answer. This is why they rejected our resolution and refused to discuss the wording with us, even though we reached out many times.

The odds are stacked against us, but we will not stop trying to get high-calibre people elected to the National Trust’s Council for the good of our heritage. In 2023 Lord Sumption, a retired Supreme Court judge and prominent historian with experience of restoring historic buildings, didn’t make the cut. When the Director-General was asked on Radio 4 why the National Trust did not want someone so distinguished on its Council, she did not address the question.

At Restore Trust, we believe that it is time for the National Trust to rediscover its conservation mojo and to be a properly democratic membership organisation again. You can help us bring about change. Choose your candidates, not the Quick Vote, and vote for people with real expertise to sit on the Council. Encourage any National Trust members you know to do the same. Tell others about our campaign. Please consider making a donation to us, if you are able, to help us spread the word. Above all, don’t give up on our National Trust.

Yours sincerely

The Restore Trust team

Our members’ resolution for a fair vote on the Quick Vote (without the Quick Vote):

A definitive ballot should be held at the 2025 AGM, voted on without use of the Quick Vote, to determine whether the National Trust’s membership wishes to maintain the Quick Vote option for future AGMs.

The introduction of the Quick Vote has undermined confidence in the National Trust and its democracy. The Quick Vote encourages members to tick a box to vote in line with all the recommendations of the Trustees and of the Nominations Committee. Since its introduction, no candidate who was not endorsed by the existing National Trust leadership, and no resolution which has not received their backing, has been successful at the AGM. Once competitive AGMs have turned into rubber-stamping exercises. Sir William Proby, former Chairman of the National Trust, has branded the Quick Vote ‘an extreme form of proxy voting’ which makes the election process ‘undemocratic.’

Members of the National Trust did not consent to the introduction of the Quick Vote via an AGM resolution; it was imposed on them without a vote. A resolution was proposed at last year’s AGM to abolish the Quick Vote. It was narrowly defeated (by 53.6% to 46.4%) thanks to the 41% of members’ votes which were cast en bloc, via the Quick Vote, against it. More than three quarters of members who cast their ballots themselves (i.e. did not use the Quick Vote) voted for the resolution.

Members’ concerns have been echoed beyond the National Trust. Professor Sir Vernon Bogdanor, Britain’s most eminent constitutional expert, has said, ‘the implementation of the Quick Vote has… undermined the integrity of the elections and diminished the voice of the members.’ Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court Justice, has said that National Trust elections have been turned into co-options, with the voting process rendered meaningless by the use of the Quick Vote. And Professor Philip Cowley, one of Britain’s foremost experts on elections, labelled the Quick Vote as ‘pretty disgraceful’ and said, ‘We wouldn't accept it in any other organisation.’

The current situation is clearly unsatisfactory: many members of the National Trust feel their voice is being undermined, and experts believe that democracy within the National Trust is becoming a sham.

This resolution does not seek to repeat the resolution from last year’s AGM, but seeks the consent of members to hold a definitive ballot, without the Quick Vote, next year. By holding the ballot without the Quick Vote and instead asking members to cast their vote themselves, there will be no doubt about members’ views or the legitimacy of the decision. The leadership of the National Trust can have no legitimate reason to deny members their clear and unambiguous say on how their AGM is conducted and we look forward to their support for this resolution.