Twelve months since he was appointed CEO of the British Mountaineering Council, UKC sent Paul Ratcliffe some questions about overcoming the financial and structural challenges that the organisation has faced in recent years, the progress that has been made, and the opportunities that 2025 will bring for both the BMC's membership and its staff.

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It's been a busy and eventful first year for you as BMC CEO, Paul! In the December BMC members' forum you said that you felt as though you had been 'playing catch-up' after the financial difficulties of the previous years (including a £625K loss in 2023). Generally speaking, how do you feel about where the organisation is currently compared to January 2024?

What a year! It's been full of ups and downs, from the low point of the outcomes of the challenging 2023 Financial Audit through to the highs of Toby winning Gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. I feel we are now in a much better place than we were in January 2024, and there is a stronger sense of calm and stability about the BMC. After three years of significant losses, we've moved into 2025 with a surplus of over £100k for the year and the reserve level is now over £300k. It's worth noting that our reserves don't include the full value of the BMC Office based on recent valuations.

I felt that at the start of 2024, there was little clarity in how the BMC delivered the UK Sport grant, how members' money was spent and a lack of trust in the organisation from members and stakeholders. We now have a much better grip on the grant funding, have delivered our governance action plan, improved relations with many of our stakeholders and have started to build back trust with our members. We recognise we have much work to do and can start to look to the future with the development of our new strategy with renewed optimism and proactivity, all founded on a stronger platform.

For 2025 we need to take small steps forwards across our broad church whilst keeping an eye on building back our reserves with a prudent approach.

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As of October 2024, the BMC achieved a surplus of £87.5K after three years of losses. The surplus is predicted to reach £104K by the end of March 2025. Staff losses were part of achieving financial stability, but what other cost-cutting measures have been taken? How did you ensure that the loss of valuable staff did not impact operations negatively?

It's been difficult but I think we've navigated it with a good plan, a sense of pulling together and a strong dose of resilience. It's really been helped by members of the community offering their support and wise words of advice.

I didn't know the full picture when I started in February 2024, and my first step in March was to make changes to operations within the UK Sport programme, which effectively meant that all costs had to move towards functioning within the grant funding available. I'd calculated that the BMC had probably been budgeting around £200k above the UK Sport grant award, partly due to the co-funding agreement in the Paris submission, which wasn't sustainable, and this needed bringing back into line.

The second key period of change was when we received the Audit figures. After a few sleepless nights, I recognised that we needed to make quick decisions and to take action to deal with the reality of what the Audit brought to light.

Here are some examples in ballpark figures of the cost-cutting measures that we introduced outside of staffing changes:

• Changing from Sage Intacct finance system costing circa £18k per annum to Xero (and associated software) now costing circa £4k per annum.
• Reducing the online shop operations which was making a loss of around £17k per year.
• Reducing original Marketing Budget by £20k.
• Reducing original Competition and Events budget by £20k
• Reviewing and cancelling software subscriptions at £15k per year.
• Reducing the office maintenance budget and other overheads by £15k.
• Moving the planned winter print Summit issue to Digital, saving circa £60k.
• Pausing Hill Walking Coordinator recruitment planned for October 2024, saving £17k against planned budget.
• Removing through the year BMC spend out of GB Climbing once we'd separated out Grant Funding from BMC.

We also had to manage extra costs incurred through the year from say having to put in place an Interim Finance Director, experiencing extra Audit charges for the enhanced work required and loss of Travel Insurance income in April.

The loss of valuable members of staff was very difficult and at times had an impact on the wider team. There have been some things that we have not been able to do and I'm very grateful to members of my team in taking on extra responsibilities so that we could deliver as much of our planned operations as possible. I've also had great support from the Board, Members Council, Partners and the wider community, which has helped immensely.

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In the December members' update, it was announced that the BMC HQ in Manchester will be sold or leased while the organisation will move to new premises. What do you perceive to be the 'risks and opportunities' of this change, as described in the update meeting?

I think some of the opportunities are:

• It could provide an improved working space for staff at a reduced cost for the organisation.
• To make savings on overheads for the BMC. The current building costs are around £158k per year to operate which includes depreciation. Relocating should save the BMC more than £50k per year, which helps make a more efficient organisation and would enable us to invest more of membership income back into supporting members.
• It could open avenues for shared working space with other organisations that we can learn from and maximise efficiencies with.

Some of the risks I see are:

• Not realising the full value of the building to maximise income for the BMC.
• Not finding a suitable and efficient office that is fit for purpose with modern day working.
• The surveyor's report may pick up significant remedial work.

I think it's important for me to stress that Burton Road isn't being sold or leased to plug a hole in our finances, and we won't move unless the value of the building is realised and we find the right premises to relocate to. We have moved the BMC into a situation where we are now financially stable.

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In the forum, you mentioned a long-term goal of reaching a £600K reserve. What is the current figure and how long do you think it will take to achieve this aim?

Yes, I don't think I'll feel comfortable until we're back over £600k. Even then, I probably still won't be happy! As we wrap up 2024, we were at £346k in reserves compared to £217k at the start of 2024. This doesn't mean that we will be there at the end of the financial year due to the way the budgets are phased over this last quarter, but unless something unforeseen happens we will make a surplus for the first time in over three years. Moving the financial year end has helped to build in recovery time for the BMC and enabled us to plan properly for new budgets starting in April. This year we have moved to a three-phase approach. We had the first budget proposal for feedback to the Board in December, the second on 15/01/2025 and we move to a final Board decision on 19/02/2025.

The key changes have been in separating out restricted funds (the grants) from unrestricted funds (membership income, travel insurance income and commercial income). It will take time to reach £600k of reserves and our aim would be to get back there by Spring 2027. If we were to include the real value of the building, then our current reserves would likely be over £1.1m and this is something we are speaking to the Auditors about.

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There has been a small drop in individual memberships, while club memberships are on the rise, but the figures overall are relatively steady compared to other membership organisations, you described in the December summary. How do you anticipate maintaining or improving membership numbers in 2025?

Yes, it's been a difficult period for a lot of membership bodies, British Cycling, for example, lost around 11% of their membership last year. So, I think we've done a good job in a tough climate.

At the end of 2024, our overall membership figures were 82,021. Club membership was up by 137 from the end of 2023 and pretty much back to pre-Covid levels. Individual membership was down by around 1,700.

My thinking for our approach in 2025 is to start mapping our member journey, to better understand why people join, what they do when they are with us, and why they leave. I also want to focus on better specific campaigns for 'why join the BMC' with a stronger focus on access, better articulation of our insurance, the Mountain Training candidate journey and promoting the benefits of BMC Crag ownership. The eight crags we have are a huge asset to the membership and climbers in general.

We also want to look at where we can strengthen our membership proposition and offers and continue our improved collaboration with our partner organisations such as Plas y Brenin and Mountain Training.

Fundamental for me is continuing to improve our communications and responsiveness for members.

Lastly, I would also like to look at diversifying our revenue streams over the longer term from areas such as sponsorship and fundraising initiatives.

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Despite some exceptional results from GB Climbing athletes in 2024, governance and financial management in the competitions sector has been a key issue in recent years. What measures have been implemented to help bring spending within and management of the competition teams under control?

The first measure was cultural. We have had a change of mindset within the staff team who have been given more empowerment and ownership over their own budgets. This has meant that we have developed and improved collective responsibility and a focus on looking after every pound we spend.

The second key change has been introducing a greater clarity in the grant funding. We now operate with the understanding that 'this is the only money we have' and we must work within this budget. This transition has been challenging as athletes, coaches and staff were used to bigger budgets in previous years, which has unfortunately meant reducing some activities. We are now in a regular routine of wrapping up the monthly accounts against the budget with the interim Chair of Finance and Audit Committee (FAC) and we now adapt quickly if required. We have better controls in place against the UK Sport grant and have had spot checks from UK Sport to ensure we are accounting for everything in the right manner, which we report on quarterly.

Additional measures, such as a new purchase order system, are helping to control spending more effectively. We have also appointed a new Head of Finance with experience of grant funding, insurance and charities, alongside a new Independent Director – who is a member of a professional accounting body – joining the Board in February. These roles will strengthen our financial oversight and governance.

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In December, UK Sport announced an investment of £2.775 million of government and National Lottery funding in Sport Climbing and Paraclimbing ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Can you explain how this money will be used and how it compares to funding received for development and progression in the Paris 2024 cycle?

The £2.775 million is broken down into £500k for the development of a Para Programme and £2.275m for the Olympic Programme. This grant is over a four-year cycle and in comparison to the Paris cycle is an uplift of over £1 million from UK Sport.

As a first step we have proposed that 9% of the funding award is used to support the programme for the back-office functions of the BMC such as Finance, IT, Governance, Comms, CEO and HR support. This will be a significant change from the Paris cycle from how the BMC operated the UK Sport investment and will be more in line with how other sports work. Furthermore, we have also proposed a co-funding amount of £25k per year for the LA cycle which is a significant change from the BMC's commitments in the Paris cycle of around £176k per annum.

We are classified as a development sport by UK Sport, which means the grant has a significant component to continue building our system through the LA Cycle.

We will predominantly have a camp and competition programme within the UK Sport investment where we build the structure and support for identified athletes over the first two years of the cycle and then balance this with a move to focus on Olympic and Paralympic qualifications and Games performances in the last two years.

For the Paralympic programme, we currently have no funded athlete places at this stage. This may mean that additional investment could be possible from 2026 when the classifications are confirmed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). On the Olympic programme we have been awarded three Podium Places which means a more targeted funding and individualised approach can be supported. These climbers receive an Athlete Performance Award direct from UK Sport on an annual basis and the programme funding is included in the overall figures awarded to the BMC. Currently they will be the only climbers that receive UK Sport Athlete Awards.

As Skimo has been introduced now into the Winter Olympic Games, there may be opportunities in the future to build a performance programme. The British Olympic Association (BOA) have awarded the BMC a small grant of £2k this year to help support Olympic qualification and we are investing £15k to help support the new GB SkiMo Commission.

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Is there any similar government funding available in 2025 for grass roots participation and development?

Outside of the UK Sport Grant the BMC is in receipt of an England Talent funding award of £800k for the Los Angeles Cycle (01 April 2025 – 31 March 2029) and has a Sport England System Partnership award of £2.79m, which commenced in 2022. The Sport England System Partnership Grant runs through to 31 March 2027.

The Talent award helps to support the development of younger athletes in our pathway. The System Partnership Grant is to support wider participation. A significant part of this award is distributed to the organisations below to help develop the sport in areas such as wall safety, coaching schemes and supporting the development of young people:

• Mountain Training UK & Ireland
• Mountain Training England
• NICAS
• Association of British Climbing Walls

There are other avenues of grant funding that could be explored through, for example, the Sport England Uniting the Movement fund for  specific projects in local areas, which could help Clubs more.

We have managed secure partnership funding through Manchester Active, Manchester City Council and UK Sport to be able to bid to the IFSC to host a World Cup event in the centre of Manchester in August 2027.

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What are the key Access, Conservation and Environmental Sustainability (ACES) projects planned for 2025?

Access and conservation work alongside solidifying our membership will be a priority in 2025. The BMC want to continue the drive to improve public access and environmental awareness, and we are using the opportunity of a new government in Westminster to lobby for more and better public access. Working with our partners at Ramblers and Paddle UK, for example, we are pushing for the asks set out in our Outdoors for All document published in March 2024, and we have recently set up a new All Party Parliament Group for outdoor recreation and access to nature. We'll be using the group to lobby for change, looking at shaping policy that's on the table now. In Wales, similarly, we are lobbying ahead of the Senedd elections in 2026.

Of course, continuing our grass roots work with landowner negotiations and supporting our access volunteers remains a priority. This year, reallocation of ACES staff time and responsibilities will mean the South West Area will now have a dedicated officer, thereby increasing the capacity of the all-England role. There have been some access issues that have and will require a considerable amount of time and resources to try and resolve (such as Symonds Yat).

We have done some great work in Mend Our Mountains through our charitable arm, Access & Conservation Trust (ACT). Having helped deliver nine big projects in 2024, we are now moving into a phase focused more on fundraising than project delivery. This year, we'll be asking our members to help support this effort. To make it easier for people to contribute to the BMC's charitable work, we'll soon be launching a new donations platform.

Advocating for considerate and responsible behaviour in the outdoors also remains a priority for the organisation. Examples of this include the initiation of a Mountain Safety Forum and another 'Big Clean Up' on Yr Wyddfa, planned for August 2025.

Additionally, we'll begin addressing the actions outlined in our Climate and Sustainability Action Plan, taking an active role in supporting partnership campaigns focused on tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis.

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You mentioned in the December update that the BMC had 'neglected some disciplines' while concentrating on improving others. What are these areas and how will you address them in 2025?

This year I'd like to work towards rebalancing the BMC's efforts across our broad spectrum of activities. Recently we have had reduced investment in areas such as Mountaineering and Hill Walking. Over time, with a staged approach and prudent financial management, we aim to increase investment into these areas.

Some steps we are taking this year are:

• Supporting the Winter International meet in collaboration with the Alpine Club and Mountaineering Scotland.
• Introducing a Summer meet for climbing in North Wales with support from Clubs who have huts in the area.
• Moving back to a full time Hill Walking Coordinator and developing volunteer-led Area Hill Walking programmes.
• Increasing access support for the South West region.
• Having a full-time volunteer coordinator that will also support our area meetings.
• Identifying more and better ways to engage with the ever-growing indoor non-competition climbing community.

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How much have your experiences at Paddle UK (formerly British Canoeing) and Surfing England informed your work at the BMC so far? Have there been valuable lessons from other sporting organisations?

I think it has been good to have had the experience in other organisations and each are unique in their cultures and ways of working. Since joining the BMC, I've tried to look at everything with a fresh pair of eyes as every organisation, culture and situation is different. I've tried to draw on my experiences and learnings as a leader to make the best informed decisions to take the BMC forward from the situation I found it in.

One of the main lessons from my time at Paddle UK was the way grant funding was ring fenced and managed rigorously within the investment contract.

I think a second area was that training, education and qualifications were part of Paddle UK and not separate as we have with Mountain Training. The advantages of this were that it supported a better member journey as part of one organisation, strengthened membership offerings with members only needing to join one body, and it made it simpler for grant applications to funding agencies to invest in one organisation.

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The draft budget is due to be released in February. Will there be any significant cuts to the budget this year that members should be made aware of?

We hope to have the final budget agreed with the board on 19th February. Some examples of budgeting difference from previous years will include:

• Reduced BMC co-funding for GB Climbing, proposed at £25k per year with UK Sport.
• An overhead recharge from the UK Sport Grant proposed at 9% for back-office support to the programmes.
• Combined Liability Insurance and Personal Accident for 2025 is now approximately 30% of membership income which is the highest proportion of any time at the BMC. This undoubtedly then influences the rest of our budgets.
• We have significant extra costs to factor in from the rise in National Insurance announced in the Labour Budget in November which will be up to £37k more per annum for the BMC.
• The BMC switched from processing its own direct debits to having Interbacs processing the payments
• Reduced staffing levels compared to the start of 2024
• Looking at cost savings provisions around print material and looking towards a digital future.

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How have you and BMC President Dominic Oughton encouraged more member feedback and participation in BMC activities, under the ethos of 'It's our BMC'? (including the 2025-2030 strategy members' survey?)

It's been great working with Dominic – his engagement, positivity and commitment to the BMC have been critical factors in helping us begin to turn the ship around. From the outset, we have both aimed to be open, approachable and responsive to all our members.

For the survey, we've worked to reach not only to members, but also to partner organisations to gather a broad range of feedback. We've additionally conducted over 20 in-person interviews with partners and other organisations to gain a well-rounded perspective on the BMC. By the close of the survey, around 850 individuals and 20 organisations had shared their thoughts and feedback to help shape our new strategy and we are very grateful to everyone who took the time to contribute.

We also held a strategy session with the Board, Members Council, Specialist Committee Chairs, Funded Partners and the Senior Leadership Team to review the initial feedback and begin shaping the emerging themes.

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Which BMC-related achievements in 2024 are you most proud of?

I'm proud of the way my staff team have handled the challenges over the last year and how supported they have made me feel.

In terms of achievements, I'm proud of all the access work we have delivered in the past 12 months, including the premiere of the Access Land Film, the launch of the Outdoors for All manifesto right through to The Big Clean Up on Yr Wyddfa.

I'm proud that we've still been able to support some organisations financially such as the Mountain Heritage Trust and Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust. I'm also very proud of all the athletes, coaches and staff for the incredible performances at the Olympic Games — it was inspirational to see and hopefully inspiring for more people to take up the sport.

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Which BMC events/initiatives are you most excited about for 2025?

Personally, I'm excited to attend the Winter Meet in March and have a go at some winter mountaineering, hopefully under the guidance of the Alpine Club President.

We are looking at putting on a BMC Volunteer Festival to bring together all our volunteers and it would be great to see this come to fruition.

I think combining the National Championships with the Selections for Lead and Boulder has been a great move. For the first time in years, we've seen all the best British climbers competing at the same competition on home turf.

This will be a critical year for access to our outdoor environments, with the decision on backpacking (wild camping) in Dartmoor on the horizon. We want to see more land opened to respectful, responsible, and legal wild camping—not less! It is only by spending time in nature that more of us can become custodians of our remote and wild places. The BMC will continue to champion access to the outdoors for all.

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Have you got any personal objectives or trips planned for 2025 that you're looking forward to?

Yes, to get out into the mountains more! I'd like to continue my pursuit of climbing all the Munros. I'm now at 72 and with two trips to Scotland planned this year I should be able to notch it up a bit. However, at this rate I'll be 80 by the time I complete them! I also haven't got back under 45" for my 10km running so I will try and crack that one. If I don't have my own challenges outside of work and keep myself fit, then I'm no good to my team at work or the organisation.

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Anything else you'd like to say….please feel free!

I'm very grateful for how everyone has approached me and treated me since I started the role. Whilst it has been a very difficult start to my tenure, I have felt the passion and support from many people from the community, the Board, the Staff and Members Council. Continuing to build a culture of collaboration, respect and the feeling of pulling together will be critical to our success.

We're starting the new year with a new Board taking shape and a strong Senior Leadership team in place, which I hope will help us steer the BMC into a more positive direction in the longer term.

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