Canal boating: is it still the low-cost living option?
Robert Parton, managing director of Aqueduct Marina and non-executive director of British Marine, offers a view on the issue.
FOR over 10 years, the character of our inland waterways has, in my opinion, been hugely affected by the high cost of living. With housing costs rising, many people have considered, or have been forced to, live on a canal boat as an affordable alternative to life on land.
The impact of this stationary liveaboard community on the canal network has sometimes been negative, creating hotspot issues both in our urban centres and in rural locations close to transport hubs or near canal services points (water showers). As a result, this has sometimes made the traditional leisure cruising customer’s experience of the canals less enjoyable.
But the question is, is this starting to change? As with much of the economy, we have seen the increase in the cost of living affecting boating; energy and boat owning costs are increasing, and materials cost rises mean new boats are now much more expensive. Sadly, this would seem to be a trend that looks set to continue in the near future.
Liveaboard boat owners, especially those who tend not to cruise, are also facing increasing environmental pressures over their stove and engine emissions, particularly in urban city centre clean air zones.
All this means the financial saving of living on a boat compared to a small apartment is not what it was. In the current used boat market, even older and more tired boats are selling for a premium. As a result, liveaboard boat owners, who purchased their boat five or more years ago, can often sell and walk away with a small nest egg.
A word of advice if you are reading this and considering selling in the current market, beware. The better the boat, the better it will sell. This may seem obvious, but it reflects what I believe is a trend to go 'upmarket' by the average new boat owning customer.
My fear is that it could create a proportion of boats currently being lived aboard becoming unwanted and beyond economic value to upgrade to meet modern environmental and quality requirements. As a result, we may sadly end up with a number of boaters who are trapped with a boat they cannot sell or afford to run. I’m sure Canal & River Trust is considering the implication of this as, if nothing else, the disposal and legal burden of removing the boats could be large.
As ever, though, there will be winners and losers, and a canal network that is primarily used as a leisure activity and not a residential network will be a better experience for the modern cruising customer, have a better environmental impact and, in the long run, be more sustainable.