Inland Waterways: Safety

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 25 April 2022.

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Photo of Ben Everitt Ben Everitt Conservative, Milton Keynes North

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government has undertaken an assessment of the cost of (a) maintaining and (b) improving the resilience of the Canal and River Trust’s waterway network to safeguard public safety in response to climate change.

Photo of Rebecca Pow Rebecca Pow The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Defra provides the Canal and River Trust with an annual grant of £52 million, under a 15-year agreement signed when the Trust was established in 2012. The grant may be used for the Trust’s charitable objects and the permitted activities set out in the formal Grant Agreement document, which is published on the Government website. This includes maintenance of the canal network infrastructure. Around £10 million of the annual grant is conditional on the Trust meeting key performance indicators covering waterway safety, improvement of towpath condition, and flood defence and mitigation. The Trust’s waterways maintenance expenditure is available in their Annual Report and Accounts, which is published on the Trust’s website.

Climate change impact is being considered as part of Defra’s current review of the Government grant required by the Grant Agreement, to inform a decision about any future funding for the Trust from 2027.

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