The generous support the Trust has received has helped the charity maintain a strong funding position; enabling it to plan to restore the levels of conservation activity it achieved prior to the pandemic and to provide much needed financial reserves as the Trust embarks on a new financial year faced with the challenges presented by rising prices and continuing economic uncertainty.
The Coronavirus pandemic continued to affect the Trust’s activities during 2021/22. Staff and volunteers worked hard and responded quickly to changes in government guidelines to sustain access to the Trust’s places, where permissible, whilst ensuring that visitors, staff, and volunteers remained safe.
Throughout the pandemic, the Trust has focused on the essentials of maintaining access to its sites and ensuring that sufficient funds are held so that the heritage assets in its care receive the conservation
maintenance that is needed to secure their condition in the long term, to make them available for everyone, for ever.
We are encouraged to report that by the end of the financial year the Trust has returned to growth in key areas:
Our financial statements show net income before exceptional items of £51.4m (2021: net expenditure of £6.9m). Exceptional income of £8.1m was received (relating to sums claimed in retail and hospitality support grants) where outlets had to be closed due to government social distancing measures.
Our investment portfolio produced investment gains of £77.7m (2021: £92.4m investment gain).
The Trust’s defined benefit pension funding position improved year on year and, under the valuation basis used for accounting purposes, an actuarial gain of £75.8m was recognised (2021: loss of £2.6m).
Further details on the pension funding position can be found in the Financial Review section of the Trust’s Annual Report and Financial Statements.
Our overall movement in funds comprises:
* Exceptional flows in the prior year comprised: £50.1m in government support grants (principally the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme), £66.3m in respect of insurance proceeds and expenditure of £6.1m on Coronavirus response measures at our places and, regrettably, £19.8m of redundancy costs relating to the restructuring of the Trust’s operations in response to the Coronavirus emergency.
Full financial results for 2021/22 Annual Report