Funding for Canals

Trudy Harrison Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Trudy Harrison)]

What an absolute delight it was to listen to my good friend, my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (David Morris), speak with such passion about the value of England’s waterways. It made me think about my nana, Nana Alice, one of the famous Robinsons from Kendal. In 1947 she would have been living just outside Kendal, at Brigsteer, and will certainly have known, and possibly travelled on, that canal, so it means something to me personally to see this project fulfilled.

Although I am not the Minister responsible for inland waterways, I am the Minister responsible for access in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Perhaps my hon. Friend would be so kind as to invite me along when he spends his day in the area? If my diary allows, I will certainly prioritise that but, if not, I will make another trip to visit the volunteers. It is the volunteers my hon. Friend described who are really making the most of the inland waterways, including through partnerships and working with local authorities.

May I take this opportunity to let the House know that we are introducing local nature recovery strategies across 48 upper-tier authorities? These will prioritise how those authorities can create more access, and that will be done in partnership with our legal commitment that everyone, wherever they live in England, will be able to access a blue or green space within a 15 minute walk.

[Matt Rodda (Reading East) (Lab)]

I am extremely grateful to the Minister for giving way. I do appreciate her help with this. I also wish to commend the hon. Gentleman’s work on this matter. From another corner of England, in my constituency of Reading and Woodley, we are very fond of the Kennet and Avon canal, which is a significant waterway. Sadly, some of the access has deteriorated a little in recent times and we have had some issues with the Environment Agency not removing sunken boats, and also problems with litter. Residents appreciate the ability to access waterways. They are a wonderful part of our heritage and are important to neighbourhoods. I thought the hon. Gentleman’s speech about his area was wonderful. Can the Minister advise me on how we can better work together on this important matter? I realise that the funding has unfortunately been cut, but there are partnerships in place. Perhaps she or a colleague could write to me to update me and my local council on some of the funds that are available.

[Trudy Harrison]

Certainly, and I will come on to just how much funding has been made available. I draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which has provided £454 million recently to a couple of projects. Moreover, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, through levelling-up funding, has provided more than £33 million to another couple of projects. That is perhaps an area that my hon. Friend could also look into. I know very well that he has previously been incredibly successful in securing levelling-up funding. As a champion of the Morecambe Eden project, I understand that £50 billion has been raised through the levelling-up project in his area, so I am well aware of his capability in that field.

In response to the hon. Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda), let me say that I would be delighted to look into funding opportunities, specifically around access. I will write to him about that, because I am not familiar with what might be available at this time.

On the wider funding for canals and inland waterways, we know—because my hon. Friend has just explained—how important these national heritage assets are, providing many public benefits. I am also fully aware of how important it is to have access to water and green spaces for our physical health and mental wellbeing, not to mention the benefits that they provide for nature. Those benefits are set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan. Halting the decline of nature by 2030 and increasing its abundance thereafter is the apex priority following the Environment Act 2023. Canals and waterways, rivers, lakes, coastal areas and streams are fundamental to that. People enjoy being by canals and waterways and using them for leisure and recreation, as well as, in the case of canals, for their historical value. They form an important part of our natural environment by providing the green corridors along which biodiversity can flourish, as well as contributing to the growth of local economies, such as through domestic tourism.

The Canal & River Trust reports that there were nearly 900 million visits to its canals last year, many of which were repeat visits—with around 10 million individual users each month. That gives us a real sense of the scale and popularity of our canals.

I pay tribute to the Canal & River Trust for the work that it does day in, day out to look after the network. Our navigation authorities have an important role to play into the future as well, because they will make sure that our nation’s key infrastructure is resilient to climate change. As we have set out in our national adaptation plan of how we will mitigate and adapt to the risks set out by Climate Change Committee, these waterways may suffer the consequences of climate change more than others.

Importantly, the work that the navigation authorities do will help us meet our net zero targets through sustainable transport and energy generation, and help to achieve water security through flood mitigation measures and water transfers.

I will write to my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale with the specifics of any funding analysis that has been done. As I say, I am not the Minister responsible for inland waterways, but I will take the time to write a detailed analysis if I can. I may require further information from the volunteers and the partnerships that he mentioned.

The Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency are the two bodies that receive direct funding, and it is important to be clear that we will continue to provide significant funding. The Canal & River Trust was set up in 2012 as a charity independent of Government. The idea was to replace the publicly owned British Waterways and free it from public spending constraints. The trust owns and manages a network of some 2,000 miles of canals and rivers in England and Wales. The original endowment in 2012 was £450 million, but it is now worth £1 billion. From 2027, £400 million is proposed to be granted over a 10-year period. We will continue to support the Canal & River Trust, but we certainly encourage it to work with others to make the most of the commercial opportunities as well.

Now that the trust is free of public sector financing constraints, it can source alternative revenue streams, including charitable donations and legacies, charity tax relief, third-party project funding and borrowing on the financial markets, while continuing to receive a substantial Government grant. The trust was also endowed by the Government with a significant property and investment portfolio from British Waterways. As I said, it was originally worth £450 million and is now worth over £1 billion. That is the result of sound investment management by the trust. To provide further support and financial certainty for the trust while it was becoming established, the Government agreed in 2012 to provide a 15-year grant of around £740 million.

An important part of the 2012 transfer from British Waterways was the memorandum of understanding signed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the trust, which contained a clear objective that the trust would progressively move towards greater self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on public funding, through its £1 billion property and investment portfolio and freedom from public sector financial constraints. Following a Government review of current grant funding that was announced in July this year, a further substantial grant funding package has been announced that will provide £400 million across the 10-year period from 2027. Importantly, that will bring the total amount of Government support for the trust to around £1.1 billion since 2012.

I also want to discuss the funding for the Environment Agency; as I mentioned, there are two bodies that look after the network of canals and rivers. The Environment Agency’s 630 miles of navigations are funded in the form of an annual grant in aid. For the three-year period from 2022-23 to 2024-25, that amounts to £73 million. I hope I have set out that this Government really have supported canals and rivers, whether through the Canal & River Trust or the Environment Agency, but that there are other ways in which those organisations can bring in additional funding, as we have heard.

To focus on the project that my hon. Friend is progressing, which is the most important thing, I cannot commend too highly the volunteers and their ambitions for their area. The project has such importance for the local community, because it will not only bring back something that was last used in 1947, but will bring benefits such as tackling climate change, improving people’s physical and mental wellbeing, and supporting biodiversity. That is absolutely what we should be doing. It supports the targets of the environmental improvement plan and the work of groups such as Sustrans, public rights of way and national trails. We all recognise the benefits of being near water and appreciating nature—and, goodness me, we all need to get a little bit more active.

I confirm that I will write to my hon. Friend with the detailed analysis of the funding for the project so far, and I will take a look at other funding streams as well. Most importantly, I look forward to visiting him, perhaps in Kendal, to congratulate the volunteers on their hard work and success to date. It is brilliant to end today’s sitting with some wonderful good news about a really successful big society mission.

Question put and agreed to.