The National Trust has long experience of managing land and buildings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and of using the planning system to help conserve our properties and the wider environment around them.

We take a long-term view of environmental management – a key element of a genuinely sustainable approach - because by law we are ‘here to stay'.

We are Europe’s largest conservation organisation. We currently protect and manage on behalf of the nation over 250,000 ha of countryside and 700 miles of unspoilt coastline and estuary.

Our free coast and countryside open spaces attract an estimated 100 million visits per year. We are also responsible for a significant proportion of the country’s designated wildlife sites, and many hundreds of buildings and gardens of historic or cultural significance.

Virtually all Trust land is held ‘inalienably’ – meaning in effect it can never be sold, and special parliamentary powers can be invoked to prevent damaging compulsory purchase by others.

But while much of our work is about looking after special places ‘for ever, for everyone’, we are also a major employer and regeneration agency, investing in parts of the country that may otherwise be bypassed by normal market forces, and supporting thousands of local businesses.

We are also a supplier of tourist accommodation in many areas, and the nation’s largest private farmland owner, working with around 2,000 tenancies across diverse hill and lowland farms.

Our presence in local communities can also help build capacity for public engagement in local planning through processes like Property Management Plans.

Just one example of how we seek to work towards sustainable development in a rural area is at the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. Over 15 years we have invested £2.5m into our own management and working with partners, to economic, social and environmental benefit.

The result has been a new youth hostel in a run-down hotel, the new Poldhu Marconi Centre, removal of unsightly buildings and cables, improved public access to the coast, the solar powered café at Kynance Cove, and restored heathland habitats through changes to farming practice.

And recently the endangered Cornish Chough has nested again on this superb coast – a nice symbol of the area’s regeneration.

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The Trust as a developer

From time to time we are responsible for some new development, such as new facilities to enable the public to gain better access or services.

Sometimes we apply for a change of use of a building to give it a productive future use or to aid farm/estate diversification.

Very occasionally we seek to develop investment land, provided it is supported through the planning system, to meet an identified need. (Occasionally donors specifically include some land with development potential to help pay for conservation work in the future). Only 0.02 per cent of Trust land has this potential.

In all cases where we apply for planning permission we look to include sustainable development principles seeking to:

• minimise resource use, waste and pollution
• safeguard landscape, wildlife and historic interests
• respect local distinctiveness
• provide better access, and a safe and healthy environment

We have developed criteria to ensure only suitable projects proceed, and sometimes work with others to take projects forward.