Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure the financial self-sufficiency of the Canal and River Trust.

The Memorandum of Understanding between Defra and the C&RT signed on 28 June 2012 has a clear objective: “To reduce dependence on Government Grant and to foster increasing self-sufficiency, by providing access to new charitable income streams and stimulating new efficiencies”. Defra officials have been discussing this with the C&RT for some time and have offered support on how it can increase income from other sources, alongside continued Government funding. The C&RT’s total income has grown by 11% between 2013/14 and 2022/23, while the proportion of that from the Government grant has remained relatively stable over this period at around 24%

The Government currently provides the Canal and River Trust (C&RT) with a grant worth £740 million over the 15 years 2012-2027 that provides roughly a quarter of its income. When the C&RT was set up in 2012, the Government also provided it with a permanent endowment fund now worth over £1 billion that generates a further quarter of its income. On 10 July the Government announced a very substantial £401 million of new grant funding for the C&RT between 2027 and 2037. This is a significant sum of money and a sign of the importance that we place on our inland waterways. It will also support the C&RT in continuing to move towards achieving the original objective of greater self-sufficiency.