Waterways on The Politics Show

[Steve Priest]

I have just had an e-mail passed on to me to say that The Politics Show, BBC 1, this Sunday (15th) will feature a discussion about plans to sell off British Waterways property portfolio,and the ramifications that this would have regarding Waterways future income and funding.

 

Idon't know much more, don't know if there will be any opportunities to participate or contribute to the discussion but it should make interesting viewing.

 

Steve

[Allan(nb Albert)]

I have just had an e-mail passed on to me to say that The Politics Show, BBC 1, this Sunday (15th) will feature a discussion about plans to sell off British Waterways property portfolio,and the ramifications that this would have regarding Waterways future income and funding.

 

Idon't know much more, don't know if there will be any opportunities to participate or contribute to the discussion but it should make interesting viewing.

 

Steve

 

Due to BW's complete incompetance in handling its property portfolio, they are now having to sell off to maintain cash flow. Part of the strategy seems to be to continue to sell off small residential properties including the remaining 100 tenanted employee/retired employee houses which have no heritage or operational use.

 

By the half financial year BW had sold 14 properties (bringing them about £2.5m) with sales agreed for another 10. Another 49 properties are already on the market or will soon be so. They plan to place sell 106 properties in 2010/11. Obviously, they will lose the income from these properties.

 

They are also selling off a handful of investment assets this year. These are brownfield sites, mostly, which were purchased for property development in partnership with others.

 

BW will give no information on what is going on with joint property ventures but we can safely assume they are in big trouble as they have written off some of the equity invested and have rescheduled debts.

 

The bottom line is that BW lost almost £100m last year and will lose a further £25m this year. They are now being forced to sell off to maintain cash flow.

 

BW's property has not been used in the recent past to maintain the waterways effectively and an argument exists that government should sell off its property portfolio to force it to concentrate on its primary task of maintaining to system in satisfactory condition. A telling argument is that BW's board has a property committee but does not have a maintenance committee!

Edited November 13, 2009 by Allan(nb Albert)

[mykaskin]

I have just had an e-mail passed on to me to say that The Politics Show, BBC 1, this Sunday (15th) will feature a discussion about plans to sell off British Waterways property portfolio,and the ramifications that this would have regarding Waterways future income and funding.

 

Idon't know much more, don't know if there will be any opportunities to participate or contribute to the discussion but it should make interesting viewing.

 

Steve

 

All I know is Tom Hill on Archimedes and Ara was filmed at Little Venice for the program, so we should see some proper boats on TV for a change (I hope).

 

Mike