British Mountaineering Council 2025 membership fee update

Access and Conservation Work: A significant portion of your membership fee funds vital access and conservation initiatives. The BMC works tirelessly to maintain and negotiate access rights to crags, mountains, and trails for everyone. This work ensures the protection of these natural spaces for current and future generations.

Representation and Advocacy: The BMC represents the interests of climbers, hill walkers, and mountaineers on a national level. We engage with policymakers, landowners, and public bodies to advocate for your rights, promote sustainable outdoor practices, and shape outdoor policies that benefit our community.

Training and Skill Development: Membership supports the BMC’s efforts in providing educational resources, training courses, and safety information to members. This includes climbing and mountain safety guidance, navigation skills, and support for clubs to deliver training for new and experienced members alike.

Supporting GB Climbing: Your fees help support GB Climbing, enabling young athletes to train, compete, and represent GB internationally. This support not only nurtures talent but also promotes climbing as a positive, healthy activity for all ages.

Publications and Community Engagement: As a BMC member, you gain access to exclusive publications like Summit magazine, packed with inspiring stories, tips, and information relevant to the community. Moreover, you become part of a passionate and supportive network of climbers and walkers.

Before deciding on a fee increase, the BMC has already implemented various cost-saving measures, including internal restructuring, reducing administrative expenses, closing loss-making parts of the BMC online shop, and careful prioritisation of projects. All staffing in GB Climbing are now funded through the UK Sport and Sport England Grants.

We have also conducted a thorough review of our spending to identify areas where efficiencies can be made. These steps have contributed to stabilising our finances, but an increase in fees is still required to meet the increased cost of the BMC Combined Liability Insurance.

If we do not implement the fee increase, we would face difficult choices regarding service reductions. This might include scaling back on critical access and conservation efforts, limiting training and educational programs, or even cutting down on the member benefits we currently provide. The BMC's financial stability would also be at risk, potentially impacting our ability to advocate effectively on behalf of our community.

In addition to the current fee increase, we are developing long-term strategies to diversify our revenue streams, including exploring alternative funding sources, partnerships, and sponsorships. We will continue to invest in projects that deliver value to our members and build on our role as a key advocate for the hill walking, climbing and mountaineering community. By carefully balancing our investments in new initiatives with maintaining core services, we aim to create a financially sustainable future for the BMC and its members.

The financial difficulties of the past two years have highlighted the importance of robust financial planning and oversight. In response, we have implemented stricter budget controls, enhanced financial systems and reporting, and introduced more rigorous financial planning processes. We have also strengthened governance to ensure greater accountability and decision-making that prioritises long-term stability. These measures aim to prevent similar shortfalls in the future.

Cost of delivery has increased significantly (paper, print, postage) along with content consumption habits changing, and we are therefore focussed on providing better digital content delivery. External and environmental impact of large scale paper and printing isn’t consistent with our environment and conservation values, and while we appreciate some members may still prefer paper issues and we are looking at how we might be able to meet that need moving forwards, with no final decisions made.

Members who have not renewed are contacted via email and telephone to understand the reason for not renewing and if cost was a factor, members are given a Direct Debit membership offer which recognises their previous support for the BMC and gets them to continue with their BMC membership.

Yes, you have the opportunity to make additional donations when purchasing membership. Also, any donations with a membership by Direct Debit, when the membership is renewed the following year the donation amount will also be collected again.

The increase in BMC membership fees is based on two factors: (1) RPI increase of 3.60% (2) Increase in the cost of BMC Combined Liability premium (£376,369).

The increased fees will allow us to maintain and enhance member services, including our access and conservation work, advocacy efforts, and educational resources. This ensures that we continue to protect climbing and walking spaces, promote safety, and represent the community effectively. Additionally, the fee increase helps us cover the rising costs of BMC Combined Liability insurance, providing members with comprehensive coverage for their activities.

Comparing Individual memberships: BMC £47.20, Mountaineering Scotland £41.00, Mountaineering Ireland £46.38, British Canoeing £60.00, British Cycling £80.00, Royal Yachting Association £55.00

Note: Mountaineering Scotland subscriptions have been frozen for 3 years (a commitment made during covid) and are also under review at this time.

We recognise that an increase in fees may be challenging for some members. We are currently exploring options for supporting members facing financial hardship, such as offering tiered membership models. Club membership also remains a more affordable option, with some clubs offering support to those experiencing financial difficulties. We are committed to ensuring that membership remains accessible to all who wish to join and benefit from our work. Individual members who are facing financial hardship and are not able to renew have the opportunity to take adavange of a membership offer that helps them in the short term and retains their membership with trhe BMC.

We are currently undergoing a thorough review of our membership offerings. Options for differentiating costs based on membership level and activity are being explored. Currently, all members contribute equally to support comprehensive services.

The insurance premium is rising due to a recent catastrophic claim, which significantly impacted premiums.

BMC Combined Liability Insurance is a crucial safety net that covers members and affiliated clubs in the event of legal claims related to accidents, injuries, or damages caused to others while participating in BMC-related activities. This insurance includes Public Liability (protection against claims from third parties).

This insurance is vital because indoor and outdoor activities such as climbing, and hill walking carry inherent risks. Should an incident occur that results in injury or damage, the costs of legal claims can be extremely high, potentially putting individuals and clubs at financial risk. By having this insurance in place, members and clubs can focus on enjoying their activities with peace of mind.

Hill Walkers: The BMC’s work extends beyond climbing. For hill walkers, the combined liability insurance is essential. For example, if a walker inadvertently dislodged a rock and caused injury to another person, the insurance provides cover for any claims that arise.

Indoor Climbers: For indoor climbers, the insurance offers protection in shared climbing spaces. Accidents, while infrequent, can occur indoors, such as dropped equipment or falls that lead to injuries of others. The insurance is a safety net for such situations.

Without delving into specifics (due to confidentiality agreements), one of the major claims involved a life-changing injury sustained by a participant while indoor climbing.

Over recent years there have been a number of claims for compensation brought by members, resulting from severe injuries suffered whilst taking part in climbing activity with other members. These claims have resulted in costs of several millions of pounds being incurred by the BMC’s liability insurers.

Unfortunately, severe incidents like these, while rare, can result in significant financial liabilities. The BMC’s insurance protects members in such unforeseen circumstances, but these events do impact insurance premiums.

The BMC regularly reviews insurance providers and negotiates terms. However, the market for this type of insurance is limited. Discussions are ongoing for future years.

The market for this type of insurance is limited, the consensus is that other providers will be also be facing similar increases in due course.

You can find more about your insurance cover at the following website:

https://www.howdengroup.com/uk-en/british-mountaineering-council

Yes, the Combined Liability, Personal Accident and BMC Travel insurance provides cover to over 75's.

As a member benefit club members receive the BMC Combined Liability Insurance. Club members who upgrade their membership to Individual membership receive the additional benefit of Personal Accident Cover.

The additional revenue from the fee increase will be primarily allocated to cover the rising costs of the BMC Combined Liability Insurance and the inflationary impacts on our operations. We are committed to using these funds to continue our essential access and conservation work, advocacy, membership services, community engagement events and development - The figures for these can be seen in the slides we went through recently, narrated by BMC CEO and President in this video.

In our annual and financial reports we will continue to provide a detailed breakdown of how funds are utilised, ensuring that members can see where their fees are being invested.

The BMC allocates funds to various areas, including competitions, outdoor climbing, and conservation. A detailed breakdown of fund allocation is available in the link here and efforts are ongoing to balance funding across all areas.

Recent changes include reducing funding to GB Climbing from 10% of membership fees (£4.07 per member) in 2023 to only 3% (£0.90 per member) in 2024.

These fees help support GB Climbing programmes, enabling young athletes to train, compete, and represent GB internationally. This support not only nurtures talent but also promotes climbing as a positive, healthy activity for all ages.

All staff in GB Climbing are now funded through the UK Sport and Sport England Grants - alongside the 90p per member funding for GB Climbing in 2024, these grants contribute a further £9.66 per member.

Club membership is offered at a lower rate to encourage participation in both local and national hillwalking, mountaineering and climbing clubs, which play a vital role in fostering community, skill sharing, and safe practices. Clubs are often the gateway for individuals to get into climbing, hill walking, and mountaineering in a supportive environment.

The BMC currently has 25,675 club members that are managed by the clubs. The BMC does not bear the cost of the administration, renewal, retention, acquisition, finance, etc for these members, which is a huge saving to the BMC. This is one of the reasons why it’s reflected in the club fees being cheaper.

Many club members upgrade their memberships to individual status, contributing more to the BMC's work. Clubs also provide invaluable feedback and support for the BMC’s initiatives, helping us stay connected to the grassroots community. Furthermore, club members receive a slightly reduced range of benefits compared to individual members, which is reflected in the cost difference.

In essence, club membership supports the collective development of the outdoor community while allowing the BMC to offer services and advocacy that benefit all members.

Yes, it's up to members whether they join a club or join the BMC direct.

The BMC is constantly looking at ways to make our memberships and services more inclusive. any changes, will be communicated clearly to the membership.

There is a project team looking into this at the moment.

The BMC is dedicated to transparency and open communication with our members. We will continue to host open forums, surveys, and feedback sessions to involve members in key decisions. We will provide regular updates on financial matters, ensuring members are informed about how their fees are being used and what progress is being made. We value member input and will use it to guide our priorities and actions moving forward.

A major review is being taken in line with the BMC's Governance Action Plan alongside Sport England. The aim of this is to bring the BMC fully in line with the Code of Sports Governance in our structure and board practice.

Directors are subject to election at the AGM following their appointment and can be approved or rejected by members. Exceptions to include are the President (elected at an AGM without being appointed first). The performance of the CEO is subject to review and scrutiny by the Chair and wider board. Directors adhere to a separate board Code of Conduct.

This includes all of the "back office" costs of running the organisation such as Marketing & Communications, IT, HR, Finance, CEO as well as the upkeep and running of the building on Burton Road.