Tag Archives: stop the surcharge

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The True Cost of the Licence Fee Increase

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The Canal and River Trust (CRT) has introduced a “glide path” with incremental and differential licence pricing through to 2028, which includes a significant surcharge on boats without a home mooring. The previously clear pricing structure has been replaced by online calculators, which obscure the true cost for boaters. Is this deception by design?

Starting in April 2024, these boats will face a 5% surcharge in the first year, on top of planned standard above inflation increases, which have already risen by 18% from 2022 to 2024. For narrowboats without a home mooring, this year’s total increase will be 11%, while widebeams (10ft and 14ft) will see increases of 25% and 39%, respectively.

NBTA volunteers attended events across the country and leafletted beside CRT stalls to raise public awareness about the licence fee surcharge.

Looking ahead, CRT expects standard licence fees for narrowboats with home moorings to rise by 31% by 2028, based on a projected consumer price index (CPI) of around 4%, plus an additional 1.5%. That’s before any surcharge. CRT’s aim is to increase revenue by an average of CPI plus 3%, but most of the burden will fall on boats without a home mooring and larger vessels. By 2028, narrowboats without a home mooring could face a total increase of 61%, while 10ft and 14ft widebeams might see rises of 97% and 130%, respectively. These figures are minimum estimates.

Additionally, CRT only provides five-year projections (2023-2028), despite operating under a 10-year financial plan, leaving future price increases uncertain. In 2022, CRT raised licence fees twice, and they may increase them further in the coming years depending on inflation. Current estimates assume 4% CPI plus 1.5% added by CRT for the next five years.

If CRT manages to extort the surcharge on boats without a home mooring this year, the future looks increasingly unpredictable and financially insecure.

NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here

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Resisting CRT’s controversial Surcharge with a Licence Strike

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Stop The Surcharge Campaign members are organising ahead of a Licence Strike. They are asking anyone interested in striking to sign up to the Licence Strike Group – tinyurl.com/licencestrike. Strikers will refuse to pay CRT’s new class of licence fee in protest against an ever-increasing additional charge for boaters who do not want, or cannot afford or find a home mooring.

The strength of this protest action is it has real leverage – a real financial and administrational impact on CRT. The new ‘Continuous Cruiser’ fee is perceived within the community as an attempt to incrementally price itinerant boaters off the waterways. Once enough people sign up to the Licence Strike, if CRT doesn’t back down a strike will be called. A coordinated Licence Strike will have a significant impact on CRT, overloading their enforcement team and costing them dearly.

Early signs are strong. Leafleting and promotion has only begun and already over 300 boaters have signed up. Strike organisers have indicated that the number of strikers are growing of their own accord:

“Boaters can see how divisive and unfair the Surcharge is and they want to strike – some are striking already. The intent is already there in the community – all we’ve had to do is facilitate it as a viable protest action. Our job is to make the strike effective and safe for boaters. There are legal protections we can incorporate. There is protection in numbers. Already more than 300 hundred boaters have signed up, and there’s an entire community behind them.”

“Boaters are being charged unfairly every time they renew a licence. CRT almost certainly aim to increase the surcharge beyond what they have stated so far and destroy our community, and boaters know this. The number of strikers will only grow. Once we have enough interest we will call a ballot and strike. CRT have left us with little choice – take action or they will end our community. We must take collective action to stop the ‘surcharge’. “

Stop the ‘surcharge’ by signing up to the License Strike Group – go to tinyurl.com/licencestrike and complete the signup form. There will be a full description of the strike action and a full ballot to members and boaters before any strike action is taken.

NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here

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We must continue to fight the Surcharge

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Last April Fool’s Day was the beginning of the Canal & River Trust (CRT) charging boats for not having a home mooring. However, this is no April Fool’s joke!

If this goes unchallenged, it will just be the beginning of CRT using the price of a licence to get rid of boats without home moorings. Each year, the price for boats without home moorings will go up more than for boats with a home mooring. In 2002 British Waterways (the predecessor to CRT) proposed to charge boats without home moorings 250% more than boats with moorings. If we let CRT get away with this, there is nothing to stop it from pricing us off the waterways. CRT has always wanted to get rid of our way of life and this could be the way it achieves its goal. We must not let CRT price us off the waterways.

Most boaters are against this differential licence pricing. CRT’s own survey showed that over 97% of boat owners without home moorings were against the charge and 60% of all boaters preferred options that didn’t charge people for not having a home mooring.

The NBTA, IWA, NABO and others have made efforts to explain to CRT that charging for not having a home mooring is discriminatory, unjustified and unwanted. This has not changed CRT’s mind. CRT will simply not be persuaded by words. Each time, CRT’s arguments are shown to have no substance, just more cut and paste nonsense. We must use the leverage we have at our disposal to show CRT that its best option is to stop this so-called ‘surcharge’ on boats without home moorings.

So what leverage do we have?

Fundamentally, we need to make it more desirable for CRT to stop the ‘surcharge’ than to continue with it. To make it less desirable, we need to hit CRT where it hurts; by undermining its public image and its income.

The best means we have at our disposal to damage CRT’s income is to carry out a licence strike. However, for a licence strike to have an impact, we need relatively large numbers. At the moment, we don’t have the numbers. That’s why it is so important to express your interest in making it happen by clicking this link and signing up: http://tinyurl.com/licencestrike

Other than finances, the other thing CRT holds in high esteem is its public image. The whole premise of CRT’s existence is based on its “charity doing charitable work” public image, and of course its donations are linked to how people view it. This is why it spends millions of pounds on PR events and social media etc*. Therefore, as long as CRT continues with its plan to charge boats for not having a home mooring, we will work tirelessly to undermine its public image. Most of us don’t want to be undermining CRT but as this is one of the best tactics for leverage we have, we must!

We ask that people who are opposed to this discriminatory licence fee increase, join us in leafleting against CRT at the very events and stalls where CRT are trying to improve its public image. Some of us have already had great success and amazing public support in such actions at CRT events. Until CRT backs down, let’s use our leverage, let’s attend its events and stalls and let the public know what CRT is really about!

By using these methods of active influence, together we can stop the discriminatory licence fee increase!

To be involved in the campaign, please email: stopboatlicencediscrimination@gmail.com

*An example of millions spent by CRT on its public image is the £8 million last year on what it calls ‘Community engagement and participation’. CRT’s last financial report states that this comprises ‘engagement and events, strategy and planning, marketing and media.’ See pages 57-58 of the Canal & River Trust Annual Report & Accounts
2022/2023.

NBTA London needs your support to carry on our work. Please get in touch here if you would like to volunteer with us. Alternatively your donations are vital to us supporting boaters with their legal case work, campaign banners and other printed material as well as events. You can help us with your donations online here