The Quick Vote is on borrowed time, and you can help end it
Also: Pokémon, Net Zero, the lost art of stewardship, cottages closed and questions over investments
Hello ,
The Quick Vote has skewed the outcome of National Trust votes for the past three years. The charity's excuse has been that building societies use it too. That excuse is now in danger of disappearing.
James Sherwin-Smith is standing for the board of the Nationwide Building Society. No director nominated by the members has been elected since the Quick Vote was introduced twenty years ago. James wants to change that. If you are a member of the Nationwide, please take a look at James's campaign page and consider voting for him.
Navendu Mishra MP has raised concerns over the governance of the Nationwide with the Chancellor - including the danger of a one-click 'Quick Vote' that bundles up the board’s preferred outcomes and makes rubber-stamping the default. Sound familiar? The National Trust’s Quick Vote works the same way: it nudges members into endorsing the leadership line before they’ve weighed the issues. Members should decide. Not the Quick Vote.
If you are as concerned as we are about this corrosive block voting mechanism hollowing out member democracy in our institutions, you can do something about it. Ask your MP to raise your concern about the use of the Quick Vote at building society and National Trust AGMs with ministers.
Recent developments paint a worrying picture of where the National Trust is heading.
The Trust has announced Pokémon 'Mega Evolution Trails' across a list of major historic sites. The Trust’s own tenants describe rural estates slipping into disrepair, as new net zero rules collide with the reality of historic buildings. A third of the Trust's holiday cottages have closed without consultation or discussion, and an investment in funds supporting overseas development projects has delivered poor results for the charity.
These are not isolated issues. They all point to the same underlying problem: mission drift — and a weakening of the Trust’s core commitment to careful, permanent preservation.
We have also lost a remarkable figure in the world of historic houses — Alec Cobbe, whose work shows what serious stewardship looks like.
Best wishes
The Restore Trust team
National Trust to 'catch them all'
Harry Mount writes in the Spectator,
The catastrophic dumbing-down of the National Trust has plumbed new depths. The latest initiative by the infantilised morons who run what was once the world’s greatest conservation charity? ‘Pokémon in Partnership with National Trust.’
‘Are you ready for an adventure?’ the Trust’s website declares. ‘Get outdoors with our Pokémon Trading Card Game Mega Evolution Trails. Complete the trails to find Mega Evolution Pokémon, discover their powers and complete fun challenges.’
Families have always visited National Trust properties with children — and children don’t need corporate 'adventures' manufactured for them. The whole point of these places is that they are already extraordinary: houses, collections and landscapes that can spark imagination without being turned into a themed experience.
When the Trust adopts gimmicks, it quietly confirms something members have been sensing for years: too often, historic houses are treated as embarrassing backdrops, rather than the very reason the Trust exists.
Alec Cobbe created this beautiful room at Powis Castle in Wales for the display of the treasures collected by Clive of India and his family. His obituary in The Telegraph is a reminder of what the National Trust used to value: taste, scholarship, craft, confidence.
Since Cobbe created the room a display case has been removed and the Trust has stood by as some of its finest treasures have been sold by the family.. This is part of the drift towards empty rooms and 'repurposed' interiors. The Trust needs more of Cobbe’s spirit: care, discrimination, and an understanding that beauty and history are the point.
Tenanted houses are not being repaired
A Telegraph report on National Trust rental homes highlights a looming collision: Labour’s requirement for rented homes to reach EPC C by 2030 versus the reality of cob cottages, listed buildings, and conservation constraints.
But the most striking part of the piece is what tenants and locals say is happening already: repairs delayed for years, leaks going unfixed, cottages left empty, and communities fearing 'ghost towns'.
A former National Trust building manager describes his old estate 'going to wrack and ruin'.
Holiday cottages closed
The National Trust has taken 137 holiday cottages out of its holiday rental portfolio and will let them to long-term tenants instead. The reasoning is that remote off-grid cottages are too expensive to service. But will long-term tenants want to live somewhere remote, in some cases with no mobile or internet coverage, and it is right to reduce rural employment opportunities? And are these cottages simply there to make as much money as possible, or are they, their surroundings and communities part of the National Trust's mission to conserve?
Overseas development at a cost to British heritage
The Times reports that the National Trust's investment portfolio has lost millions, thanks in part to poor performance of wealth funds dedicated to funding sustainable development in India, Brazil and China. Is this kind of investment in the best interests of the charity?
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