Canal & RiverTrust LogoGreat news! A funding deal has been agreed between the Government and the Trustees of the Canal & River Trust – at last and not a moment too soon.

Richard Benyon, Waterways Minister, announced to the House today a long term funding deal worth more than £1billion over the next 15 years.

The Government will lay the Order to transfer statutory functions from British Waterways to the Canal & River Trust in Parliament at the end of February. Richard Benyon hopes to see  the CRT launched in June 2012.

This is the deal….

  • Core grant of £39m per year (index linked to inflation from 2015/16 onwards)
  • From 2015/16, an additional grant of 10m per year (reduced gradually over the last five years of the grant agreement, tied to three performance measures):
    – satisfactory condition of principal assets
    – satisfactory condition of towpaths
    – satisfactory flood risk management measures
  • A £25m one-off grant  to be spread across the next few months, and a capped ‘last resort’ Government guarantee in relation to the historic public sector pension liability;
  • The government has already announced that the £460m commercial property endowment used by British Waterways to fund the infrastructure network will be transferred to the CRT for the same purposes.