As many of you know, the main reason Canal & River Trust (CRT) has given for imposing a surcharge on the licence fees of the 20% of boats that don’t have a home mooring is that it needs more money. CRT says this is due to two things: firstly inflation, and secondly cuts to its grant from the Government.
However, inflation increases are accounted for with an increase in the standard boat licence fee. In 2022, the standard CRT boat licence fee was increased by 8%, while inflation that year was 9%. On top of this, in 2023 CRT increased the standard boat licence fee by 9%, when inflation that year was just 7%. In 2024, CRT increased the standard boat licence fee by another 6% at a time when inflation has decreased to 2%. These licence fee increases more than compensated for inflation. Therefore, CRT cannot seriously argue that it needs to increase the licence fees for boats without a home mooring because of inflation.
Turning to the cuts in CRT’s grant from the Government, it is possible to counter this proposition with the following argument: When CRT was set up in 2012 the plan set out by the Government was always to cut the CRT grant over time until CRT no longer received Government funding. CRT was tasked to find other ways to fund the waterways it manages. For some years, CRT received more Government funding than British Waterways did before it. However, instead of successfully obtaining funding to replace the Government grant, CRT spent 12 years wasting money on things like new logos and the so-called ‘water safety zones’. CRT also sold assets that could have generated income or saved money, such as the BWML marinas and most of the dredging and maintenance tools and equipment. It now costs CRT much more to hire the equipment back. So either the CRT leadership is to blame for mismanagement, or the CRT project was set up to fail from the beginning. Or a bit of both. Therefore, it can easily be argued that we as boaters should not foot the bill for the failure of CRT.
However, the real question should be whether the extra money raised by the surcharge on boats without home moorings can cover the reduction in funding from the Government. According to our calculations, CRT will raise around an extra £4.27 million from the surcharge on boats without a home mooring over the next five years. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the £320 million that CRT claims will be cut from its Government funding*. CRT has not put forward any serious plans to raise the hundreds of millions needed to cover the loss of the Government grant. Charging boaters more will never fill that gap. Therefore, we maintain that CRT is not imposing the surcharge because it needs the money. It is simply a way to make our way of life harder, in an effort to rid the waterways of the community of itinerant boat dwellers.
*Articles about CRT’s claim of a £320 million cut from its Government funding:
and
https://www.birminghammail.co.
