MP urges 'formal review' into National Trust over 'Beeching-style' decision to shut properties

Ministers are being urged to order a formal review into the running of the National Trust after a senior MP accused it of breaking the law by "unilaterally closing" properties.

Guy Opperman, the Conservative MP for Hexham, has written to Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, asking him to order a Government review of the Trust and a 12-month stay on any cuts to jobs, shops and cafes.

The conservation and heritage charity is set to lose £200 million this year after shutting all its houses, gardens, car parks, shops and cafes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In July, it set out plans to close 160 shops and 10 cafes and shed 1,200 jobs – out of a 9,500-strong workforce – to help plug this financial black hole, while director general Hilary McGrady refused to rule out "mothballing" properties.

Mr Opperman wants the Trust to look at ways to free up some of its £1 billion funds it holds in reserve to keep properties open, likening the brutality of some of the closures to the cuts to the railway network by Richard Beeching in the 1960s.

He has been protesting about the Trust's permanent closure of the cottage in Wylam, in his constituency, where railway pioneer George Stephenson lived for the first eight years of his life, one of six properties that are closed and do not have a reopening date.

The other five are Chastleton House (Oxfordshire); Lawrence House and Levant Mine and Beam Engine (both in Cornwall); The Textile Conservation Studio (Norfolk); and Ascott (Buckinghamshire).

A seventh property – Wordsworth's House and Garden in Cumbria – is listed to open in Spring 2021.

More than 120 properties are currently closed listed as "working hard to reopen" which it is understood relates to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis of the National Trust's website.

In his letter Mr Opperman told Mr Dowden: "My fundamental concern is that Wylam is the tip and that Parliamentary colleagues will see much-loved National Trust properties unilaterally closed.

"There is a growing 'Beeching' approach to these properties and, once closed, reopening is almost impossible."

Ninety-five per cent of the Trust's land or properties are held "inalienably" which means they cannot be  "voluntarily sold, mortgaged or compulsorily purchased against the Trust's wishes without special parliamentary procedure".

However, Mr Opperman, also a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, added: "I cannot see how the Trust's plans to close or repurpose dozens of properties, such as George Stephenson's birthplace, is compatible with the various National Trust Acts."

The 1907 Act requires the Trust to "facilitate access by the public" to buildings and chattels in its care, while the 1937 Act requires it to ensure "the access to and enjoyment of such buildings, places and chattels by the public”.

Mr Opperman urged the Trust to look at "ways to free up some of its massive £1 billion funds to address Covid pressures and come to the department with a proposal".

He also urged Mr Dowden to order "a review as to the approach, management and financial capabilities of the National Trust similar to that conducted by Julian Glover in respect of National Parks".

Mr Opperman said the trust should "call a halt to their planned approach pending such a review, and/or assist the National Trust to find a way through the next 12 months pending that review".

He said he wanted ministers to "consider all options going ahead, so that ministers are ready to take decisive action in 2021".

Earlier, Mr Dowden said the Trust should be concentrating on "preserving and protecting" heritage and not making Winston Churchill the subject of controversy, after the wartime leader was criticised in the Trust's review of slavery and colonialism.

The National Trust hit back strongly against some of the criticism on Friday evening. A spokesman said: "It is absolutely wrong to say that we are planning major closures. This is utterly untrue, sensationalist and has no foundation whatsoever.

"We closed our places only because of the Covid-19 lockdown and we are reopening them as quickly as we are able to and it is safe to do so. By the spring, we expect nearly all of the 400 buildings in our care to have reopened. Since beginning to reopen after the national lockdown, we have welcomed more than five million people.

"It is also wrong to suggest that the National Trust should spend its restricted funds on current operating costs. Our restricted funds are made up of money given to us for specific purposes such as the long-term upkeep of places like the Lake District and Snowdonia. It would be morally and legally wrong to spend them on running costs at this time."

A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: "We have seen the letter and will respond in due course."