Selling us up the Swanee

While CRT complains about the reduction in government funding and uses it as an excuse to increase our licence fees, we must remind ourselves that the reason given by the Tory government for the creation of CRT was so that the waterways could eventually be self-sustaining and not need any government funding. Putting aside the fact that the only way the waterways can continue is at least in part via government funding, the question is: how could the waterways be self-funded?

The only way that the waterways could be self-sustaining is by the waterways authority managing its profitable assets properly. However, CRT, which got the government contract in the first place on the proviso that it would eventually be self-sustaining, has been selling off its profitable assets. Back in 2018, for example, CRT put up for sale its marina subsidiary, BWML. Why did they do this? Was it because the marinas were unprofitable? No. In the words of Stuart Mills, Chief Investment Officer at CRT at the time, “BWML is performing well and we believe its prospects for future growth are good.” In 2018, the turnover at BWML was £8,502,000. This level of turnover continued to grow even after BWML became Aquavista. In 2021, turnover was £10,064,021. But unlike when it was BWML, CRT doesn’t receive that profit from Aquavista.

Now that CRT has sold off BWML, who gets that profit? While there are many strands to this, simply put, the profits go primarily to the private equity company Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), which is part of Lloyds Bank. In 2018, CRT sold all its shares in BWML for £2,116 (yes! We found it difficult to believe too, but this is what the financial reports suggest) to a limited company called Project Belize Limited. You would think that the 18 marinas, including the Crick Marina, caravan sites, etc., would sell for millions, but the amount isn’t reported in the press, nor is it in the financial reports of CRT, Project Belize, or Aquavista. So, BWML became Aquavista, and Project Belize borrowed roughly £35 million from Lloyds Development Capital for infrastructure (no more detail is given than that). Aquavista now has 29 marinas in its growing portfolio. A lot of the profits from the marinas go to paying off the debt and, of course, paying shareholders.

So why did CRT sell off these very profitable assets like marinas, particularly when they weren’t facing a large funding shortfall from the government? There appears to be no good business reason. Even if they sold them off for £35 million, with the level of profit the assets were making, they would get that back in a few years. What better way to bring in money for a water authority than moorings? As well as profits from moorings, BWML generated income from caravan sites, boat brokerage, property rents, and other sources. Now that profit is being gobbled up by shareholders and bankers rather than going back into reinvestment in the waterways, which serve the wider public good.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. CRT and British Waterways before them have been selling off anything bolted down or otherwise. From lock houses and dredging equipment to even towpaths, assets have been sold off and are being sold off, and this isn’t to the benefit of the waterways. It’s only to the benefit of the people and businesses that own them now. So it is CRT’s remarkable mismanagement (read: selling off) of its assets that has led to huge holes in its funding. We shouldn’t allow CRT to lump us with the bill for this with ever increasing licence fees. We say to CRT: fund our waterways and stop selling our assets!