People and nature thriving: Our strategy to 2035

Two girls looking at a fern while standing among tall plants — Visitors on Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour, Dorset | © National Trust Images/John Millar

2025 marks our 130th birthday. In each chapter of our history, we've adapted to the needs of the day. Now, it’s time for a vision that takes us into the future. Our new strategy sets out our aims and ambitions for the next decade and beyond.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve listened to more than 70,000 people – our partners, members, visitors, volunteers, staff but also people we hadn't met before to ask, 'how can we serve you?'

This strategy is the result of those conversations. It comes from the people of our three nations. And we're sharing it as an invitation for everyone to join us in the next, crucial decade of our mission.

Membership and visits to the National Trust remain the absolute foundation of all our work, and we will continue to push for greater quality, greater enjoyment and more reasons to return. That will continue and grow through this strategy too.

At its core, the strategy has three ambitious goals for 2050 that we'll work towards over the next decade:

to restore nature – not just on National Trust land, but everywhere;
to end unequal access to nature, beauty and history;
to inspire millions more people to care and take action.

Read our full strategy

Read our full strategy (PDF)

Restore nature – not just on National Trust land, but everywhere

We’ll inspire people to help nature – and nature will help us all.

We all need nature to survive. UK nature is in trouble but we can help restore it by working together. We’ll focus on local efforts toward the global target of protecting 30% of land. We’ll do this by putting the long-term interests of nature and people first in our decisions. And we’ll help millions of others, and those who serve them, to do the same.

We've already worked on the Durham coastline where waste from the former mines has been replaced by golden beaches. Elsewhere around the country, we're preserving the nation's peatlands which hold 2% of the carbon in the UK. These are just two examples of the work we're already doing to restore nature, but through this strategy we'll do even more.

By 2035 we'll:

work with others and on the land in our care to create 250,000 hectares of thriving, nature-rich land;
influence and inspire society to care for a more climate-positive future.

By 2050 we aim to:

have enabled nature to flourish and adapted important sites to meet the challenges of climate change;
have played our part in the UK reaching net zero and creating a resilient climate-positive economy and society.

Two visitors standing on an ornate dark wood staircase surrounded by large colourful classical paintings covering the walls — Visitors on the Painted Staircase at Hanbury Hall and Gardens, Worcestershire | © National Trust Images/John Millar

End unequal access to nature, beauty and history

The places we care for were once only enjoyed by a few, but we now welcome more than 150 million visits each year. However, many people don’t have enough nature in their lives to be healthy, or enough cultural experience to feel valued. Nature and culture must thrive beyond the places we own – in towns and cities, in coastal communities and villages.

Our current work in cities includes Castlefield Viaduct – a Grade II historic railway bridge in the centre of Manchester which we've helped transform into a 'garden in the sky'. And have invited local communities to celebrate events that are important to them, such as Holi and Diwali, at the places in our care.

We'll keep investing in and conserving the houses, collections and gardens we look after so that they provide enriching and engaging experiences for everyone who visits. And we'll continue to turn the most remarkable, historically significant houses into must-visit cultural destinations, with improved interpretation and presentation.

Increasing access means being part of something everyone can benefit from. It's about removing practical barriers like distance, as well as emotional barriers like belonging. Because nature, beauty and history belong to everyone.

By 2035 we'll:

work with others to bring more nature and heritage to where people live;
ensure more people can engage with nature, beauty and history on their own terms;
provide more equal access to nature, beauty and history, so more people benefit.

By 2050 we aim to:

enable all people to enjoy access to natural and historic places and feel the benefits in their everyday lives;
create a greater sense of belonging and connection with heritage (past, present and future) among people, and greater appreciation of the heritage of others.

‘On it the sun shines, over it the wind blows, and it belongs to you all and to every landless man, woman and child.’

A quote by Octavia Hill Co-founder of the National Trust

Inspire more people to care and take action

We can’t deliver the first two goals on our own; millions of people will need to join in.

As Europe’s largest membership organisation, supported by a huge volunteer force, we're in a unique position to inspire change and create a bigger movement for care and conservation. We need to inspire and enable people to care for nature and beauty on a bigger scale than ever before, in both their daily lives and in their communities.

We need to boost fundraising efforts and advocacy to ensure that giving matches the growing concern for nature and climate. And we’ll need to equip children and young people to be the conservationists of the future. We want them, and future generations, to inhabit and inherit a thriving world.

By 2035 we'll:

work with others to help more people, in particular young people and children, to feel that caring for nature and heritage is for them;
enable all people to experience nature, beauty and history and take care of the world around them;
work with businesses, the government and other charities to make positive change for nature and cultural heritage across the UK.

By 2050 we'll aim for:

at least half the population to say they care about nature, beauty and history;
everyone to have more nature, beauty and history in their lives, and to stand up for it;
our nations to be more invested in nature and culture for themselves and future generations.

Four children, two dressed in Scouts uniforms, posing on a beach with equipment for rubbish picking — Children taking part in a beach clean at Blakeney National Nature Reserve, Norfolk | © National Trust Images/Rob Stothard

Renew our ways of working in a world that’s changing fast

To achieve the goals set out in our new strategy, we'll have to gain even more knowledge and take advantage of new tools, technologies and approaches to care for nature and wildlife.

We’ll need to be capable of working in partnership with others more. And use new techniques to engage more people in caring for the world around them. Citizen science, public engagement and building alliances are just some examples of the work we'll need to continue and expand.

We also need a more diverse workforce with people from different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, abilities and identities. And we need to equip younger people for the work of the future – caring for the natural world and bringing cultural heritage to life.

We need to be more efficient than ever so we can grow and diversify our funding and use every pound to benefit nature and people.

What happens next?

Over the next decade, we’ll work towards these goals and adapt to meet them. We'll also ensure the bedrocks of the National Trust – our members, volunteers and the treasured places we care for, continue to thrive.

We hope you feel proud of what the National Trust has already achieved and are ready to join us for the next chapter.