With over 60 million visitors to properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland each year, the National Trust has first-hand experience of how damaging airport expansion can be to the UK's most valued heritage. Many Trust properties, including Charlecote Park, Leith Hill and Calke Abbey, are in danger of permanent damage from expansion plans.

The Trust is calling on the Government to recognise the importance of domestic tourism as a key to achieving a more sustainable aviation policy. Better promotion of opportunities to holiday at home will not only reduce the damaging impacts of aviation but also help regenerate local economies and communities.

Read the report

Genetically Modified Crops
As the country’s largest landowner and farming organisation GM crops are an important issue for the National Trust, and we plan to submit our views to the public debate organised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Read more

The Future of Farming
On 26 March, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, gathered farming and food industry figures to Downing Street to launch the Government's initial response to the report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food - now known as the Curry Report. Far from being the promised summit on farming reform, it was a disappointingly low-key event with little action announced that was really new. The Trust responded publicly, setting out what we were doing to actually deliver Curry recommendations and expressing our disappointment at the announcement of more discussion and debate, rather than firm action. Click either symbol to read our statement on what we are doing, and what we want to see from the Government.

Many of the recommendations of the Curry Report in which the Trust, and most other players, believe are particularly important have not yet been addressed by Government. The most important recommendation was an increase in the rate of 'modulation' to 10% from 2004. Most of the additional money generated from the switch in funds - c.£200m - would be use to fund an entry-level agri-environment scheme, delivering environmental benefits across the whole countryside. We are discussing with DEFRA what role we might play in piloting this approach, as well as sharing our experience on whole farm planning, advice and demonstration farms. Click to read our briefings on a National Farm Advisory Service and on Entry-Level Agri-Environment Schemes .

In 2001 we also produced Farming Forward , a leaflet which identifies 10 essential steps towards producing a sustainable farming system for the UK.

Planning reform
The Trust is contributing to the ongoing debate around the reform of the land-use planning system. We have just published new research examining the Government's proposals for new parliamentary procedures to speed up planning decisions on major projects. In the National Interest? examines four case studies - a major reservoir, a new port, an extra runway and a new railway line - to test the Government's proposals on the ground. It concludes that the Government's plans will fail to make decisions better or faster. Read the report .

Read the views we submitted on the Planning Green Paper .

Historic environment
The Trust believes it is vital that the Government fully recognises the substantial contribution the historic environment makes to our culture, economy and social well-being. It is valuable for its own sake, as a resource for urban and rural regeneration and for its contribution to our quality of life. We welcomed the Government's first ever statement on the historic environment (Force for our Future, published on 13th December 2001) as a "good first-step", but have called on Ministers to move "further and faster" in recognising the value of heritage. Read our position statement .

Free access for children to the historic environment
The Trust has published a think piece, Making History Matter: How children can discover heritage. This paper addresses the Government's proposal to provide free access for children to historic sites, as set out in its policy statement, The Historic Environment: a Force for Our Future at the end of 2001. Initially the proposal was directed only at English Heritage and other government funded bodies England which would have had a significant impact on our and others' ability to provide education visits for schoolchildren. Following lobbying from the Trust, the Government now intends to consult over the summer on options which address the entire sector's capacity to deliver structured visits for children to heritage sites.

Making History Matter is intended to simulate debate to inform the Government's consultation and sets out initial thoughts on how a scheme to provide free access to heritage for children might be funded and administered. Read the full document .

Nations and Regions
The Policy team is closely monitoring the development of devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as in the English regions. The long delayed Regional Governance White Paper proposes directly elected regional assemblies for those English regions which vote in favour. The paper heralds fundamental changes in the long term to the structure of regional and local government. Read our position statement on regional governance .

Valuing our Environment
The Trust has commissioned a number of research projects - in the South West, Cumbria, the North East, and Wales - investigating the economic importance of tourism to the future of our countryside and its communities. The studies demonstrate the critical link between a high quality environment and the future economic sustainability of rural communities. Read more on the Valuing our Environment studies.

Transport
The results of the Government's multi-modal studies into finding new solutions to transport problems continue to cause concern. The results of recent studies in the South West, East Midlands and along the South Coast all threaten Trust properties and solutions continue to be dominated by road proposals. The Trust is closely engaged with the multi-modal studies on the ground, and is working to ensure that the transport solutions proposed are integrated and sustainable.