Government cuts in spending

[Yoda]

There will be substantial increases in mooring fees and boat licence fees next year as the EA and therefor BW have to become virtually self sufficient.

 

Start saving as I recon that it will be about 20%.

[mayalld]

There will be substantial increases in mooring fees and boat licence fees next year as the EA and therefor BW have to become virtually self sufficient.

 

Start saving as I recon that it will be about 20%.

 

Sadly, you could well be right.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

There will be substantial increases in mooring fees and boat licence fees next year as the EA and therefor BW have to become virtually self sufficient.

 

Start saving as I recon that it will be about 20%.

 

Not sure about EA but I'm sure BW will put the squeeze on boaters again next year.

 

Regarding self sufficiency - this was certainly BW's old 2012 Vision. However, one gets the feeling that over the last couple of years they have been trying to lay the blame at governments door for lack of funding. What seems to have happened is that they have pored money into commercial ventures (in particular, buying property and joint venture PPP's) in an effort to create a large revenue stream which would replace the need for government grant. That failed!

 

Last year was a financial disaster with BW going into the red.

 

It seems that BW has had to start a fire sale to get some money in from properies recently. It has also moved to rearrange debt for the ISIS joint venture due to problems with loan repayments.

 

The bottom line is that government will not put more money in because BW told them years ago that they were going to be self sufficient. BW needs to raise money to finance joint venture debt and boaters are a soft target as they have a £1 billion investment in terms of boats. Most will chose to pay up rather than sell up ...... and selling up will not reduce boat numbers as the new owner will license etc.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Allan(nb Albert)

[OptedOut]

£1 billion investment in terms of boats. Most will chose to pay up rather than sell up ...... and selling up will not reduce boat numbers as the new owner will license etc.

 

If the current financial crisis continues this may not be accurate?

[cotswoldsman]

There will be substantial increases in mooring fees and boat licence fees next year as the EA and therefor BW have to become virtually self sufficient.

 

Start saving as I recon that it will be about 20%.

 

If my licence goes up by £120 I still think its a bargain.

[mayalld]

If my licence goes up by £120 I still think its a bargain.

 

Hmmm....

 

The problem is that if BW are to make ends meet, they are going to have to continue to apply stonking increases year on year.

 

Ultimately, we are looking at a licence that is (in real terms) at least twice what it is now.

 

Licences and Moorings may not be a huge proportion of their income, but they are the largest income stream that will absorb large increases in fees without significant impact to the size of the chargeable population.

 

They can't double property rents, because people will just leave.

 

They could double angling club rents, but the figures are so low that the extra income isn't going to be worth the screaming that the anglers will indulge in.

 

Oh, and judging by the number of hire boats that were tied up in early July, expect APCO to be bleating to BW that their members can't afford any increase, so the whole burden will fall on private boaters.

[Naughty Cal]

If my licence goes up by £120 I still think its a bargain.

 

Just renewed mine. It has cost me a whole extra £13 this year.

[barge sara]

Once the Government have finished trying to spend their way out of recession there will be a clamp on public spending as never seen before. A change of government won't change that as we already have a national debt that 20 years ago would have identified the UK as a 'banana republic'. There will be no option other than a major axe through all public spending.

 

Doubling of the BW Licence fee is an optimistic scenario.

I would expect funding cuts, huge licence increases and closure of 'expensive' waterways.

 

Moving to France was an option but the news from there isn't much better.....

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Hmmm....

 

The problem is that if BW are to make ends meet, they are going to have to continue to apply stonking increases year on year.

 

Ultimately, we are looking at a licence that is (in real terms) at least twice what it is now.

 

Licences and Moorings may not be a huge proportion of their income, but they are the largest income stream that will absorb large increases in fees without significant impact to the size of the chargeable population.

 

They can't double property rents, because people will just leave.

 

They could double angling club rents, but the figures are so low that the extra income isn't going to be worth the screaming that the anglers will indulge in.

 

Oh, and judging by the number of hire boats that were tied up in early July, expect APCO to be bleating to BW that their members can't afford any increase, so the whole burden will fall on private boaters.

 

I would agree with this analysis.

 

With regard to APCO and hire boats - the number of hire boats has been declining year on year and the expected boost in number of hirers this year (due to people not going abroad) seems not to have happened - perhaps the weather or the declining state of the canals has been a factor. BW has agreed with at least one hire company that it will defer license payments!

 

APCO/BMF have for a considerable period of time been trying to get licensing changed so that they pay at private rate and have a seperate operators license for "the fleet" to make up the difference between private and business. The sticking point is that BW does not want to enter service level agreements with regard to operator licences.

 

I suspect BW's long term game plan is to increase private licenses more than business so that, at some time in the future, there will be a single license. The difference used to be 2.47 but is reducincing.

 

Dave is quite right about anglers - they have a lot a choice as to where to fish and BW is unable to impose large increases upon them for that reason either on club renter waters or day ticket waters.

 

The future for boat owners looks rather bleak - more costs and less service and maintenance.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Allan(nb Albert)

[Chris Pink]

What is in danger of happening, is in fact happening now is that the licence is beginning price a lot of people of the canals so that now, and even more so in the future, there will be far less people that can afford to use the canals.

 

I have, over the last 10 years or so seen an almost complete decline in cheap boats, the cruisers, the small springers, the older 30 foot leisure boats. There are no cheap moorings, the costs pay for a lot of camper van fun. The hire market is on the decline, probably not as a result of present economic circumstances but more from the point of view that paying £1,000+ for a wet week of hard work has limited appeal.,.

 

So the canals will be populated by 2 groups;

 

First is the people for whom it is still affordable to buy a £60K boat, keep it somewhere for £3K a year, spend the recent forum estimate of £4.5K for everything else. Don't know how many but a fairly small and probably declining number.

 

The other group is those who would still see double (or more) licence fee as still cheap housing, together with the continued squeeze on the affordability of land based dwelling, this would have the effect of driving even more people onto the water. A proportion of those would live in marinas but the majority would not see marina dwelling as attractive.

 

And we have seen how well these two groups run along together.....

[Tiny]

On our local news I see that all those renting properties from BW at Tardebigge have recieved letters telling them BW want them out by... More than one said it was to sell off the houses to make a quick buck and also that they expect BW to sell the land around for housing. There is a story that BW here have always had problems with getting rid of waste as with the houses and the sanitary station being the only one in miles the tank often fills to overflowing.

 

At Grindley BW sold the lockhouse but cut off the water and said they would not supply it - put your own main in. The guy who brought, never took up residence but developed the property and sold at a massive profit did this. Wonder what BW will not offer housebuyers at Tardibigge.