National Trust lost £4.5m after farm virus

The National Trust, one of Britain's wealthiest charities, lost £4.5m last year due to a sharp fall in visitor numbers and extra costs during the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

The conservation group said yesterday it had been forced to use money from its emergency reserves to cover the loss, as well as having to pay £1.5m to tenant farmers who lost 50,000 livestock to the farm virus.

Senior managers at the trust, which has £685m in assets and owns 612,000 acres in England and Wales, said general finances remained robust. But they added that the loss would make a "big difference" to the organisation's ability to increase spending rapidly, despite an improved income from its 2.8 million members.

Its annual report and accounts, which are published today, show that its annual surplus last year stood at about £3.4m less than expected.

Between February and July last year, the height of the epidemic, the trust closed all but 20 of its 300 houses and gardens. A decline in holiday cottage bookings and income from its shops and restaurants added to the budget shortfall.