The Canal and River Trust (CRT) has launched a campaign to reverse budget cuts proposed by DEFRA over the summer of 2023. The reduction in the grant funding DEFRA provides amounts to a more than £300 million budget cut in real terms over a 10-year period from 2027. The CRT says that this will threaten the future of the nation’s historic canals, leading to their decline, and to the eventual closure of some parts of our cherished waterways network. 

CRT are asking the public under the tag #KeepCanalsAlive to email their local MP urging them to provide the nation’s canals with the funding they need to protect them for future generations. 

Details of this campaign can be found here: https://action.canalrivertrust.org.uk/page/129216/action/1?ea.tracking.id=c

The Inland Waterways Association has pointed out that the proposed grant cut will impact on the regeneration of historic buildings and on local communities along the nation’s canals. Follow this link for more details: https://waterways.org.uk/campaigns/protect-our-waterways