Summary of 2024/25 Annual Report & Accounts
Despite rising material costs, additional environmental regulation and extreme weather, 2024/25 saw us deliver wide-ranging canal maintenance whilst prioritising services to boaters and communities.
More than £60 million was invested in winter maintenance across more than 200 projects, from installing 135 new handcrafted lock gates, to major inspections at landmark sites and repairs to centuries-old bridges, tunnels and wash walls. A further £21 million was spent upgrading 22 of our 74 large, raised reservoirs.
Alongside this, we introduced our Better Boating Plan, developed with boaters and backed by £3 million of targeted investment to improve navigation. Our dredging programme removed over 60,000 tonnes of material and improved over 40 miles of waterway, while over 6,800 tonnes of waste were collected, of which 98% was recycled or recovered through waste to energy.
We have also been campaigning to secure a sustainable future for the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, where new abstraction legislation threatens water supplies. It was also part of a multi-agency response to a major pollution incident from a canal-side business in Walsall.
David Orr, chair of Canal & River Trust, said: “Maintaining this nationally important infrastructure, keeping it safe and open, in turn allows the canal network to contribute positively to significant national challenges and policy goals, such as water security, protecting and enhancing biodiversity, and providing access to open space and nature for millions of people.
“We have engaged closely with the Labour government, aiming to build a new partnership exploring how we can contribute to their policy goals, while also enabling the canal network itself to remain resilient and a net contributor to the economy.”
