In the winter, the cost of living on a boat increases massively for many of us, with paying for coal, gas, or diesel to heat our homes. Some of us may forage for free wood to burn. However, this option is now threatened when moored within ‘clean air zones’ due to bans on burning foraged wood.
In the last few years the cost of fuels to heat our homes has dramatically risen. In some cases costs have doubled. But it hasn’t just been boat dwellers that have felt the cost of heating homes exponentially rise. The whole of the UK has seen a great increase in the cost of heating and energy in general. In 2022 in response to this crisis, the government decided to pay £400 towards energy costs for most homeowners. At first however, many households, including boat dwellers, were left out.
Along with non-NBTA members, and other Traveller organisations, we lobbied different MPs across the country. We also lobbied CRT to get them to put pressure on the government. NBTA also met several times with the civil servants, responsible for the Energy Bills Support scheme, including with the deputy director-general of the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
Many of us sent emails to CRT demanding they do something as well. Then CRT started to talk to the government and made at least one press release stating that boats without home moorings should also get the grant.
Into the summer of 2023 we continued with our campaign including a petition and a Flotilla demonstration from Braunston to London to hand in the petition to 10 Downing St. Along with all this, a few boaters without home moorings on CRT waterways started legal action for discrimination against the government on the basis of being left out of the scheme. Two weeks after the solicitor put the papers into court, the government announced that they would pay both energy grants worth £600 to each boat licenced on CRT waterways without a home mooring.
Although we should have got the grant from the beginning, with a campaign, political and legal pressure, we won. This shows that whilst it’s never guaranteed, sometimes our collective effort can have a huge payoff.
The Energy Grant flotilla heads to London. Photo: Dave Marshall
