Canal & River Trust (CRT) has published the results of the engagement survey of waterway users carried out by consultants Campbell Tickell for the CRT Commission to review boat licensing. Results showed that more than 8 in 10 are frustrated with the day-to-day management of CRT waterways. Over 60% of respondents were frustrated about maintenance – including of towpaths and banks, management of water supply and a lack of investment in infrastructure – making this the biggest issue raised in the report. The survey ran in March and April 2025.
Despite CRT scapegoating the rise in itinerant boat dwellers, only 1 in 20 surveyed saw overcrowding on the waterways as an issue. Some 9 in 10 did not support legislative change, despite CRT’s recent emphasis on this possibility.
Scapegoating itinerant boaters
The survey forms part of CRT’s ongoing Future of Boat Licensing Commission which caused outrage earlier this year when it described the itinerant boating community as an ‘operational, financial and reputational challenge’ and lamented how legislation like the Human Rights Act 1998 and Equality Act 2010 were limiting the charity’s ability to take enforcement action against boaters, which includes forcing people into homelessness via eviction proceedings.
The total number of boats licensed without a home mooring on CRT’s 2000 miles of canals and rivers numbers only around 7000 out of a total of 35,000. Yet in recent years CRT has targeted this small community with a controversial licence fee surcharge, a decline in services, punitive enforcement (including of families, pensioners and disabled boaters), and multiple attempts to remove historic mooring spaces altogether.
Questions about the survey data
The NBTA requested the raw data of the survey in its meeting with the Commission, but to date has received nothing, shedding doubt on its promises of “clarity” and “fairness”. A Freedom of Information Act request has now been lodged.
Failing on the basics
The survey – which many respondents have reported as being ill-conceived and biased – has nevertheless returned results that will make difficult reading for CRT. Despite CRT’s continued scapegoating of boaters, the numbers show a convincing rejection of the idea of legislative change that could be used to decimate the boating community.
More worryingly for CRT, they also indicate a range of stakeholders’ overwhelming level of frustration with its day-to-day management of the waterways, including financial mismanagement, a decline in facilities and anger over the inflating wages of CRT executives.
Rising salaries vs disappearing services
The number of CRT employees paid over £60,000 per year doubled between 2013/14 and 2023/24. In the same period, CRT invested in only two drinking water taps nationwide and no new sanitary facilities. And yet in only three years (2020-2023) it permanently shut down 21 waste facilities. It’s small surprise that waterway users across the country are frustrated.
NBTA Chair Pamela Smith said:
“Yet again, CRT has attempted to use a deliberately biased survey to manufacture consent amongst the public, just as it did when it introduced the licence surcharge despite the vocal opposition of a majority of boaters and boating organisations.
This time, however, its strategy has backfired. CRT has asked waterways users what they think the issues with the canals are – filled with leading questions to suggest that it is itinerant boaters – and the vast majority of people have come back and said ‘you’re the issue, and you should focus on doing your job properly’.
Boaters are the lifeblood of the canals, with itinerant boaters forming a unique and essential part of our waterways system and heritage, keeping the canals functional, safe, welcoming, interesting and full of life and colour. By attacking boaters and neglecting its own work, CRT is doing a disservice to everyone who loves the UK’s canals and rivers. We can only hope that CRT takes this opportunity to actually listen to what waterways users of all kinds want: knuckle down and do the job you were created to do.”
You can download the survey report here CRT report of Licence Review Commission survey June 2025