We have updated our Asset Management Strategy, Realising value from waterways, to include an amendment to reflect the status of developing an updated Asset Management Strategy and extend the date of validation of this strategy to 2025. Here, Richard Wakelen, our Head of Asset Management, explains more.
We have around 35,000 assets to look after and many of them have significant heritage value. Most are out in the open, exposed to the elements, and they all need maintenance to ensure they carry on working properly. Our challenge is to make sure we work on the right thing at the right time, so that people all over the country have the best experience possible on our waterways.
The asset management strategy is about gaining more insight and a clearer understanding of what we should do to ensure the sustainability of our precious inland waterways. We're taking a 10-20 year view, looking at everything in great detail so we can plan for any upcoming peaks of work. We don't want any surprises.
Putting people first
We're putting people first. Our canals and river navigations provide valuable open spaces where people can take time out of their busy lives and relax. We know that people are happier when they spend time near water. Therefore, we need to examine which of our assets have the greatest impact on those visiting the waterways, whether that's for boating, walking, fishing, cycling, picnicking, or any of the activities that people enjoy on our canals, rivers and towpaths.
In the future we want even more people to enjoy spending time on our canals and rivers. But for that to happen we need to ensure the waterways remain safe, open and accessible.
The Asset Management Strategy
The asset management strategy was planned to cover the period 2017 to 2021 and was last updated in June 2018. However, the over-riding principles have not changed, and we continue to focus on developing a suite of asset specific strategies, a longer term 10-year investment plan, developing an asset health index and improving how we manage our asset notifications (particularly defects).
We have developed a new Asset Management Strategy, which we have renamed ‘Strategic Asset Management Plan’ (SAMP) to align with the terminology used in the current international standard on asset management, ISO 55001. The SAMP was developed to support our Government Grant Review (GGR), during 2021 and 2022. It was based on the Government Grant continuing in full and set out a range of asset related outputs for a 20-year period, with service and condition maintained on all waterways and canals. It remained in draft form pending the outcome of the GGR process which was anticipated in July 2022.
With the Government announcement in July 2023 of a reducing grant from 2027, the investment, and therefore the asset related outputs, would not align to what was proposed in the draft SAMP. The Trust is currently reviewing the GGR outcome, to understand the longer-term position in terms of how we best manage service, condition and network availability in response to the potential different investment levels.
It is our intention to finalise the SAMP over the course of 2024 and publish an updated version in 2025 (subject to any potential changes the Government may or may not make in terms of grant funding).
In the interim we will continue to;
- apply the over-riding principles highlighted in the current Asset Management Strategy of maintaining the same level of service, condition and network availability and
- focus on developing a suite of asset specific strategies, a longer term 10-year investment plan, developing an asset health index and improving how we manage our asset notifications (particularly defects).
