THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST OR NATURAL BEAUTY

Registered charity 205846 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q333515 · Wikipedia · also known as NATIONAL TRUST, NATIONAL TRUST CYMRU, THE NATIONAL TRUST

To look after places of historic interest or natural beauty permanently for the benefit of the nation across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Objects

THE PRESERVATION FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION OF LANDS AND TENEMENTS (INCLUDING BUILDINGS) OF BEAUTY OR HISTORIC INTEREST AND, AS REGARDS LANDS, FOR THE PRESERVATION (AS FAR AS PRACTICABLE) OF THEIR NATURAL ASPECT, FEATURES AND ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. ALSO THE PRESERVATION OF FURNITURE, PICTURES AND CHATTELS OF ANY DESCRIPTION HAVING NATIONAL AND HISTORIC OR ARTISTIC INTEREST. (FOR FURTHER DETAILS SEE THE NATIONAL TRUST ACTS, 1907 TO 1971).

Area of benefit: NATIONAL

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Swindon, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Trust ended the year in a solid financial position with total income of £766.2 million and total expenditure of £824.4 million, resulting in a net decrease in funds. The Trust holds total unrestricted funds of £447.2 million, which significantly exceed its stated operating margin target of 20% of operating income, indicating strong liquidity and capacity to fund conservation projects.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by KPMG LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — National Trust (matched by registered charity number).

Public-sector contracts awarded

From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.

UK research funding (UKRI Gateway to Research)

• Beyond Restoration: Nature recovery at scale with BVLOS drone operations —

Property (HM Land Registry)

3,312 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3135 freehold); recorded price paid £44.7m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: National Trust scores 2.1/5 from 1,527 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 28/02/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~23.8 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 2.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 9.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (12/06/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (22/05/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (22/05/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (09/01/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (18/11/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alexander Robert Nairne CBE FSA
• Dame Anna Lisbet Rausing DBE
• Denise Nichola Jagger · trustee of 2 other charities
• Helen Mary Browning OBE DL
• Maninder Grimshaw
• Michael Salter-Church MBE
• Patrick Adam Fernesley Figgis · trustee of 2 other charities
• Paul Roberts
• Rene H Olivieri CBE
• Richard Hethersett Huntington
• Scott Damon Beaumont
• Zarin Homi Patel

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL TRUSTS ORGANISATION.

• INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL TRUSTS ORGANISATION income £1.1m
• THE HERITAGE TRUST FOR THE NORTH WEST income £2.1m
• NORWICH PRESERVATION TRUST LIMITED income £119k
• BADGWORTHY TRUST FOR THE PRESERVATION OF EXMOOR income £109k
• NATURAL ENTERPRISE LTD income £753k
• FENWICK CHARITABLE TRUST income £388k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.