CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Richard Bath meets new National Trust for Scotland boss Philip Long, a creative powerhouse charged with rescuing an embattled cultural institution that is big on heritage but perilously short of cash
New National Trust for Scotland boss Philip Long talks future plans for an institution perilously short on cash
On a sunny late June afternoon in the gardens of Kellie Castle in Fife, Philip Long looks remarkably relaxed for a man who has just been handed a large piece of unexploded ordnance. And really, there is no other way to view the leadership of the National Trust for Scotland, of which Long became chief executive earlier this month.
One of Scotland’s most beloved cultural institutions, the Trust was already being buffeted by commercial headwinds before its problematic finances forced it to vacate its old HQ on Charlotte Square in 2008, and money – or lack thereof – has been a recurrent theme ever since. Even were these normal times stewardship of the charity would be a daunting proposition, but these are not normal times. Covid has turned the smouldering embers of straitened circumstance into a financial conflagration.
In late May, Long’s predecessor Simon Skinner spoke of ‘unprecedented times’ for the Trust, and of it ‘facing an uncertain future’. That in no way understates the situation. Lockdown has wiped £28m off the Trust’s earnings this year, while its investment portfolio has taken a £46m hit. Nor is this a bad dream the Trust can simply wake up from: with some properties unable to reopen, revenues next
Under Long the V&A attracted a million visitors in the first 500 days, smashing its targets
year are predicted to be down by 30%, while there has been a ‘significant’ drop in its 360,000 membership. Skinner’s admission that 429 of the Trust’s 751 permanent employees could lose their jobs completes an apocalyptic backdrop to Long’s arrival.
So, notwithstanding the glorious sunshine and bucolic surroundings, it is something of a surprise to find Long in such calm, even chipper, form. He has the demeanour of a man who is quietly confident he can rise to the challenge, much as he did in 2011 when he left the National Gallery, where over 20 years he had built up a stellar reputation as a curator, to become founder director of the V&A in Dundee. Launched into the teeth of a savage recession, there was no certainty of success for the V&A offshoot, yet under Long it attracted a million visitors in its first 500 days, smashing its targets.
‘I’m very proud of what was achieved at the V&A Dundee,’ says the softly-spoken Edinburgher. ‘I learnt a lot and hope I can bring my passion for Scotland’s creativity to the Trust, an organisation I’ve known for many years.’
When we met in the gardens at Kellie Castle, just down the road from the St Andrews home he shares with his wife Annie Campbell and their teenage children, he had yet to start work at the Trust’s Hermiston Quay mothership. Yet he has clearly done a power of thinking about an organisation he knows from the inside, not just because he is a member (he’s a keen walker and cyclist so Torridon, Mar Lodge, Hill House and Kellie Castle are particular favourites) but also because his wife worked in the Trust’s commercial department for 20 years until 2015.
That informed inside track on how the Trust operates will be invaluable because Long’s preferred tactic of taking time to assess his surroundings is simply not an option; the Trust needs to square the circle of its finances, and fast. While he knows there will need to be a short-term fix to ensure the Trust’s survival – a fundraising frenzy is already underway and he will be asking for a ‘significant amount of funding from the Scottish Government’ – he knows there also needs to be structural change if the Trust is to reach its Centenary in 2031 in good shape.
Rumours around what shape this reform might take abound. Many revolve around the Trust’s curious (and, to some, incoherent) range of properties, which mixes historic buildings (such as Falkland Palace, Crathes Castle and Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House), with islands (St Kilda, Iona and Fair Isle) and grand estates (Torridon, Mar Lodge and Glencoe). Raising money is a priority, and Long says that ‘non-heritage assets that the Trust own but which don’t have any particular value to visitors’ may be sold, which suggests that parcels of land, small houses or cottages may be offloaded.
‘It is a difficult time for the Trust and it is a challenging time for me to come in, but I’m not put off by that,’ he says. ‘There is an immediate job to do ensuring its survival and enabling it to continue to be financially viable. The pandemic has crystalised challenges for the Trust because we depend on a complex model of philanthropic support, earned income and visitors.
‘None of us want to see redundancies but one of our most significant costs is staffing, and there’s no doubt difficult decisions will need to be made.’
There is, however, no shortage of people willing to break cover and publicly tell him how to do his job, including the biggest hitter in the Trust’s orbit, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop. She has already said that ‘hard-nosed’ job losses on the scale suggested by the Trust leave her ‘unimpressed’, lines that don’t need much reading between.
Influential historian Michael Fry suggested a series of options open to the Trust. It could, he said, charge for access to currently free properties such as Ben Lawers, Staffa or Fair Isle (as with the National Parks in the USA), divest itself of its more costly holdings, or even be effectively nationalised by being rolled into Historic Environment Scotland, the quango whose portfolio of 300 stellar properties
I do not envisage that the Trust will have to dispose of any properties of heritage value
includes Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae and Fort George.
Long, though, issues a robust defence on all fronts. ‘Making people pay to go to Torridon, Glencoe or St Kilda isn’t something that I have considered,’ he says. Nor does he have any truck with the idea of offloading such cash sponges. ‘What would you propose that the Trust does? Sell Glencoe? Or just not care for it anymore?
‘I do not envisage that the Trust will dispose of properties of heritage value. The Trust depends on charitable support and if we were to take rash decisions about the disposal of heritage property, I worry about the effect that will have on the very clear loyalty that the membership of the Trust has for it. The ambition has to be a financially sustainable model for the Trust. I believe that can be possible. For me it is about how you continue to make that portfolio of properties cared for and relevant to people.’
Long believes that the Trust’s charitable status, enormous membership and apolitical nature make it uniquely well-placed as a guardian of the nation’s historical treasures. ‘It surprises many people that the Trust is a charity, given the importance of its responsibilities to care for Scotland’s heritage,’ he says.
‘But we offer the country very good value for money. We have not depended on significant funding from government [about 1% of income]; our model is as an independent charity which works because people care deeply for what is in its care. If it was to somehow or another come into some degree of public ownership then that would place a burden on taxpayers, which I’m not sure is desirable either by government or by taxpayers.’
There are, of course, endless white noise issues that will confront Long. One is how a relentlessly creative soul (his father was an architect who worked for the celebrated Basil Spence in the 1960s and 70s) will cope with what is effectively a managerial role. Another will be what he does about Black Lives Matter, with the case of former slave Scipio Kennedy at Culzean already blipping onto the woke radar. And then there’s the thorny issue of Nationalist ire at the appointment of unrepentant Unionist Neil Oliver as the Trust’s (non-paid) president.
But for the time being, they are all side shows. As Long knows, for the foreseeable it’s all about the money.