The Canal & River Trust has announced an increase of four per cent in boat licence fees from 1 April 2025 for both private boat owners and boating businesses.
The rise is based on the latest Bank of England forecasts that inflation will remain at around 2.5 per cent through until April 2025. Surcharges for boats without a home mooring and wide beam boats, announced last year, will be applied in addition to this rise. Taken together, the overall average increase in fees is projected to be around the Consumer Price Index (CPI)+3 per cent in line with the Trust’s previously-announced long-term plan.
Boaters can use the online calculator on the Trust’s website to calculate what the licence fee will be for their boats: licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/LicencePrices.
The Gold Licence charges are being agreed with the Environment Agency and will be announced in due course. The surcharge for boats without a home mooring will be applied to the Trust’s portion of the fee*. The Trust will be looking jointly with the Environment Agency at the surcharge for wider boats, with more information to follow.
Richard Parry, chief executive at Canal & River Trust, said: “Boat licences contribute an essential one eighth of the income we have available each year to maintain our 250-year-old canal network. We’re committed to keeping the canals open for navigation and, by purchasing a licence to cruise our waterways, boaters are playing an important part.
“But our charity is facing a combination of more extreme weather brought by climate change, an ageing network that is costly to fix, with higher material prices, and reducing government funding. We’ll continue to secure as much income as we can through our commercial and charitable activities and focus on those priority works that support navigation. On top of this commitment, we’ve recently introduced our Better Boating Plan to tackle the smaller-scale tasks that make life hard for boaters, such as broken paddles and overgrown vegetation. The funds we receive from boat licences supplement our other income streams and help us to carry out this vital work.”
The Trust will continue to support boaters struggling to pay their licence fees on a case-by-case basis. This may include arranging flexible payment plans and signposting to relevant services and benefits, for example the Waterways Chaplaincy, local authorities and Citizens Advice.
The Trust is also working to generate more commercial income which underpins much of the investment in canal maintenance. This is alongside the target of growing annual fundraising income from £6 million to £60 million and funding from local authorities and other third party funders from £18 million to £28 million over the next decade.
This week, the Trust publishes its annual Boater Report, covering the period from April 2023 to March 2024, which sets out how the charity generates the income needed to keep the canal network open and available for navigation, as well as some of the boating projects undertaken. Hosted on the Trust’s website, a link to the Report will be included with new boat licences and boat licence renewals. The Canal & River Trust’s Boater Report 2024 | Canal & River Trust
*The Gold Licence is a joint annual licence between the Trust and the Environment Agency allowing unlimited boating on both parties’ navigable networks. Gold Licence increases are applied from 1 January each year, based on increases to standard licences in the previous year, and applied proportionately to the number of boats with Gold Licences on each navigation authority’s waterways.
