From canoes to large river cruisers, you need to licence your boat if you want to keep and use it on our waterways.
What you need to get a boat licence
Before you buy a boat licence you will need:
- To read the boat licence terms and conditions – it’s the legal bit!
- Boat insurance
- A Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) certificate
What we mean by ‘boat’:
- All types and size of boat with or without a motor, ie, a river boat, canal boat or houseboat
- Any small ‘open boat’ such as canoe, paddleboard, rowing boat or dinghy
What type of licence?
Where do you want to keep and use your boat?
Not all rivers and canals are managed by the same authority, known as the Navigation Authority. Different navigation authorities have different licences and fees, you need to contact each one separately, depending on where you want to use your boat:
- The Canal & River Trust runs 96 canals and navigable rivers in England and Wales
- The Environment Agency (EA) runs the River Thames, the River Medway, and rivers in East Anglia
- The Broads Authority runs the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads
- For Scottish waterways visit the Scottish canals website
- See the Inland Waterways Association’s waterway pages for any other navigation authorities
We have two types of licence: business or private
If you use your boat for any kind of business such as a floating café, renting it out for people to live on or holiday boats, you'll need a business licence.
If the boat is purely for your own private use there are three varieties of private boat licence:
- Long term – if your boat is always on our waters
- Short term – if your boat is small, like a canoe, or you’re visiting from other waterways
- Gold - this combines the Canal & River Trust and EA licences into one licence – bargain!
How much does a private boat licence cost?
Your licence fee currently depends on the length of your boat, along with the length of time you want the licence (although this will be changing in the future to include width as well as length):
Last date edited: 17 October 2019