A PRESSURE group has called on the Government to give more cash to maintain the UK’s waterways – warning a lack of funds may force some rivers and canals to close.
Fund Britain’s Waterways (FBW), which represents a wide range of river and canal businesses and users but not Canal & River Trust, a charity part-funded by the Government, has called on Labour to reverse what the group says is underinvestment and urged it to stump up real funding to ensure infrastructure doesn’t fall into disrepair.
The organisation, which has 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for change, is unhappy there was no mention of specific funding for waterways in the autumn Budget, despite its ‘intense’ lobbying prior to the statement.
It fears a lack of investment will see waterways become unnavigable and some may even be forced to close.
Les Etheridge, chair of FBW, said: “The Government must intervene to help reverse the current deterioration of Britain’s inland waterways which is increasingly impacting businesses up and down the country. Unless funding arrangements are reviewed and improved, we fear that Britain’s inland waterways and the many benefits they provide will be in serious jeopardy.”
Rachel Reeves’ Budget included £400m for tree planting and peatland restoration to protect soils, rivers and biodiversity, and contribute to climate mitigation and resilience. In addition, £2.4 billion was pledged to support flood resilience.
DEFRA has stated the government has pledged £401m from 2027 to support the work of the Canal & River Trust.
FBW, which has 140 member organisations, including British Marine, the Inland Waterways Association and the National Association of Boat Owners, believes it won’t be enough to make all the essential repairs and restore the centuries-old infrastructure.
It highlights the value the waterways bring to the ecosystem, tourism and jobs. According to FBW, inland rivers and canals contributed £7.6 billion to the economy in 2022/23. In addition, it claims it supports 41,000 jobs directly rated to inland waterways and a further 300,000 jobs indirectly.
A spokesman said: “The increasing fragility of the infrastructure which supports Britain’s 5000 miles of inland waterways, combined with ever more frequent episodes of extreme weather, means there is now an urgent need to invest to save the network.
“While the underinvestment in the network is allowed to continue, we are getting ever closer to the tipping point when waterways will be forced to close, directly hitting jobs and wider tourism, and wasting the millions of hours of volunteer time and millions of pounds of public money that has been dedicated to regenerating this great national asset.
“There is ample evidence of the need to increase funding, with all the main navigation authorities openly admitting they have insufficient funding to deal with all the growing infrastructure challenges. Today there are long periods of time where sections of the network are closed for extensive repairs and other sections become unreliable due to more frequent and unpredictable closures caused by failing infrastructure. All this is having a heavy impact on the holiday hire boat trade, which in turn impacts local jobs and wider associated tourism.
“The level of funding required to restore and retain Britain’s inland waterways is tiny in the overall terms of government spending and yet it is critical to avoid a more rapid deterioration of the network which would only further burden the public purse and jeopardise the many businesses and communities which rely on having safe and navigable waterways.”
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: “We recognise the wide range of benefits that our inland waterways bring, and we are currently providing the Canal & River Trust with an annual grant of £52.6 million to support that.
“We have agreed to provide substantial new grant funding for the trust of £401 million over 10 years from 2027, reflecting the continued value that we place on our inland waterways.”
Defra also pointed out, according to an agreement between the charity and the previous government, that the CRT was only due funding – a total of £740m – until 2027. From then on, it would become more self-sufficient, the previous administration said.
