National Trust members warned of 25 per cent rise in just three years

The price hikes, which came in on 1 March, mean the cost of a membership has gone up almost 25% in three years. An annual adult membership cost £76.80 in 2022 but now costs £96.20, while a lifetime family membership will now set you back £3,025. Before the increases, it was £2,865.

Rupert Lowe, a Reform MP, told the Telegraph: “Heritage should be for everyone, not just for those who can afford the ever-rising fees used to fund the National Trust’s nonsense diversity and inclusion efforts.

“Instead of squeezing their loyal visitors at a time when everyone is tightening their belts, they should consider cutting their own bloat and invest in making British heritage accessible for everyone.”

A National Trust spokesperson said: “Operating costs have soared in recent years in the challenging external financial context. In our last financial year, our operating costs grew by £53.2m.”

They were keen to remind readers, however, that membership still “costs the same as buying one takeaway coffee a week”.

The National Trust lost 89,000 members in 2023 to 2024 against the backdrop of controversies, including replacing the term “ethnic minority” with “global majority”, excluding Christian ­holidays from its “inclusivity and wellbeing” ­calendar and pushing through a vegan overhaul of its cafes, the Telegraph said.

A National Trust spokesman added: “We set all our prices carefully, based on what it costs to carry out our conservation and other work.

The National Trust is planting new woodlands across land in England equivalent to 800 football pitches this winter in partnership with local forest experts. The charity said almost 416,000 trees will be planted by the end of March, creating 519 hectares (1,282 acres) of woody habitats, wood pasture, hedgerows and orchards.

England’s Community Forests, a network of 15 expert groups, is supporting the work with £7.1 million under its Trees for Climate programme, which is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It comes as part of wider efforts to tackle climate change, boost nature and provide accessible woods to communities living in towns and cities. A total of 20 planting projects are taking place on land mainly cared for by the National Trust in counties such as Devon, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.

Lunt in Sefton, Merseyside, hosts the largest project, where work is under way to plant a nearly 93,000 trees across 78 hectares (192.7 acres) after the National Trust bought the land from the local council.