The National Trust has voted to begin searching for a new banking partner, with members delivering a significant rebuke to its long-standing relationship with Barclays over concerns about the bank's financing of fossil fuels. The resolution passed at the charity's annual general meeting on Saturday with 53,256 votes in favour and 4,094 against, backed by the board of trustees. The decision instructs the organisation to launch a competitive tendering process that will, for the first time, require prospective banks to demonstrate commitment to protecting biodiversity and tackling climate change.
The vote marks a victory for campaigners who have argued that the National Trust's partnership with Barclays contradicted its public stance on environmental protection. Drew James, a proposer of the resolution and member of Christian Climate Action, said the result showed charities should apply the same environmental standards to their financial relationships as they do to investments and suppliers. He highlighted that the Trust's chief executive has identified keeping fossil fuels in the ground as the most significant response to climate breakdown, while the bank channels billions of dollars into fossil fuel expansion.
The pressure on the National Trust has intensified as the charity faces mounting consequences from extreme weather across its properties. A wildfire at Dunwich Heath in Suffolk in July destroyed 104 hectares of ancient heathland, with campaigners estimating recovery would take 25 years. Other properties have suffered flash flooding, prolonged drought and increasingly severe weather. The Trust has repeatedly identified the climate emergency and nature decline as the greatest threats to the landscapes and historic properties in its care.
However, the board has indicated the tendering process will not proceed rapidly, with insiders suggesting it will not begin for at least a year. Deputy chair Sandy Nairne warned that the vote result, while important, is not binding on trustees, who will carefully consider it alongside other factors in future decision-making. The Trust has also made clear the tender will remain open to major UK clearing banks, saying no specialist ethical bank currently has the necessary cash handling capability, lending capacity and operational scale to support an organisation of its size and complexity.
Barclays defended its relationship with the Trust, stating it is a privilege to bank the organisation and that it has facilitated more than $300bn of sustainable and transition finance over the past three years, including billions for cleaner energy projects in the UK. Campaigners, however, dispute the significance of this figure, pointing to Barclays' annual report which states that fossil fuel entities can access the fund provided money is not designated directly for oil and gas activity. Restore Trust, a group of National Trust members, called the vote a distraction from the charity's core purpose of maintaining historic buildings and countryside.