IWA considers recent Licence Fee announcements are further argument for transfer of EA Navigations

8th November 2018: The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) says inflation-busting increases in charges demonstrates why the Environment Agency navigations should be transferred to Canal & River Trust, following EA’s announcement that it will go ahead with substantial increases to its navigation charges for the next two years.  This is despite the majority of respondents to EA’s recent consultation objecting to the levels of increase proposed.  The announcement from EA came on the same day that Canal & River Trust, by contrast, confirmed that they would be freezing private and business boat licence fees until 1st April 2020.

The announcement confirms that EA registration fee increases for 2019-20 and 2020-21 will be the same as those implemented in 2018-19, which is 5.7% on the River Thames, 7.5% on Anglian Waterways and 10% on the Medway.  Recognising that some level of increase is important, IWA, along with many other respondents, had asked for the increases to be linked to inflation using CPI (Consumer Price Index, the latest available figure is 2.2%).  CRT’s announcement includes a 5% reduction in the prompt payment discount, which will mean an increase for many boaters, but this is still well below EA’s increases.

At a recent meeting between IWA and EA’s national navigation team, IWA pointed out that such high levels of increase would be likely to price some boaters away from EA navigations, would deter families and young people from getting involved with boating in the first place, and could lead to an increase in registration fee evasion.  This is backed up in the results of the consultation, with 43% of the respondents stating they would consider leaving EA waterways, and 31% considering giving up boating altogether.

IWA National Chairman, Ivor Caplan, said “We acknowledge that EA does need to receive more funding in order to continue to maintain existing levels of navigation maintenance and service, as well as being able to address some of the backlog of work that has led to long term closures of some waterway structures, but such high increases to registration fees is not the way to do this.  EA needs to increase its income without disenfranchising boat owners and pricing them off the waterways.  Increased funding from Government is essential to retain vibrant waterways alive with boats, with all the associated benefits that brings to the UK economy and local communities, as well as the health benefits to the wider population.”

IWA believes that the recent announcements demonstrate yet again why a transfer of the Environment Agency navigations to Canal & River Trust would be beneficial, not only for the long term future of the waterways themselves, but also for the boaters that use them.

One response to “IWA considers recent Licence Fee announcements are further argument for transfer of EA Navigations”

  1. John Forbes says:

    Given that the government doesn’t have enough money to fund the NHS properly, not to mention the police, the armed forces, the border force, etc., etc., etc., it is unrealsitic to expect them to find money for boaters on the rivers.

    Local councils need to embrace the idea that the rivers bring trade to riverside businesses, and find a way to reflect this benefit in the rates. Then they can pass on this revenue to the EA.

    It does of course require imaginitive thinking on the part of local and national government, and sadly this is a commodity that is usually in short supply. But the solution does lie here. Being beside the river brings benefits, and at the moment the increased value from being beside the river is funnelled to those most undeserving beings – landlords.