Boat licence prompt payment discount cut again

TODAY, Canal & River Trust has announced its increases in boat licence costs.

Both private and business boat licence fees will rise by 2.5% (current inflation is 1.7% having dropped from 2% in August).

Prompt payment halved

The majority of boaters, who pay in advance to get the early payment discount will be hit again as it is reduced from 5% to 2.5%.  It was originally 10%.

However to get more boaters to pay online using direct debit and in full, a one-off discount of 2,5% will be offered to those boaters taking this up.  However this is not available for boaters already using the internet or paying by direct debit.

Broad beam boats

The somewhat controversial pricing of broad beam boats has now been decided with costs based on the width of boats in addition to length, with a phased surcharge for boats over 7ft 1in in width.

The Trust will start the phased introduction of additional pricing bands for boat widths  with a surcharge of 5% applied until March 2021 when it will then increase to 10%, stating that this means that boats over 7ft 1in wide will be subject to an increase in licence fees of 7.6% overall from 1st April 2020.

The percentage will rise year upon year for an initial five years period.

Will go towards upkeep of waterways

 Jon Horsfall, Head of Customer Service Support at Canal & River Trust, explained:

“Income from private boat licences accounted for around 10% of our annual income last year, and helps ensure that we can carry out the vast amount of work needed to keep the waterways available to boaters."