Trust’s land ownership

SIR – As the Law Commission remarked in its 2013 consultation paper on conservation covenants: “The National Trust can create statutory covenants with landowners for the purposes of conserving land, even where the National Trust does not hold neighbouring land. A National Trust covenant will bind the landowner who agrees it, and all subsequent owners of the land.”

Why, therefore, does the National Trust buy agricultural land, and why does it launch impassioned appeals to raise funds to purchase “threatened land” such as that near the White Cliffs of Dover? Why not renounce an expensive policy of ownership and management in favour of one of conservation covenants?

The wider adoption of such an alternative policy would provide significant protection to huge areas of undeveloped land at minimal cost. With the spread of “right to roam”, the necessity of ownership in order to ensure access is of reducing significance and, in the interests of receiving maximum return upon expenditure, it should no longer be such a central driver of National Trust policy and fundraising activity. Michael Webb

Taunton, Somerset