...but is there a sting in the tail?
There was good news for British Waterways in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report this week.
As part of the Chancellor's measures to give a "fiscal stimulus" to the economy, a grant to BW of £5m will be brought forward from the planned 2011-12 budget. The money will be used as part of a £33m major works programme to repair a range of historic locks, bridges, embankments and reservoirs and dredge channels in waterways across England and Wales.
This shows an acknowledgement that Britain's historic waterways provide excellent value for money for the nation, generating in excess of £500m to the economy each year.
Bringing forward this chunk of cash means that vital work can be carried out sooner and, hopefully, the employment and commerce generated will do its bit towards helping to re-vitalise the economy.
However, it was also announced that, as part of the Operational Efficiency Programme, a team led by Gerry Grimstone will review British Waterways' model for managing its canal-side property portfolio and assess how best public value might be delivered from these assets.
This is causing alarm amongst many waterway enthusiasts, as they fear that the implication is that BW will be forced to sell off its property portfolio through a kind of "fire-sale" and might not even get any of the money!
The fact that a review has been announced doesn't necessarily mean that the assets will be sold off - although that is always one of the possible outcomes. One argument against selling off property at the moment is that it would not bring in sufficient money, with the current downturn in property prices.
Another outcome might be the placing of BW's property and investment operation into a new private sector company run by BW, separate from the public sector navigation operation, as recommended by the KPMG report.
Other points of view state that BW management is somewhat naive to imagine that they could build up a huge property portfolio to help finance its navigation operation, without that portfolio being eyed up and plundered by governments of one colour or another.
So what do you think? Will the extra cash now help? Will BW end up losing its property assets? What does it mean for the future of the waterways?
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2 comments:
First, I suppose we must begrudgingly acknowledge that some of the pressure being applied by all user groups have had a small affect in BW's immediate budget. Albeit at the cost of this being unavailable in a couple of years time.
My worry is that based on the seriously poor management of BW part of it will be wasted on high salaries, staff bonus schemes that seem designed to easily achieve and hugely inept schemes like the waste of money on the lock bollards fiasco.
Until the Board and Senior management of BW start to understand the real needs and listen to their customers who are experienced in the use of the Waterways System it will continue to have problems.
They are in real danger of losing the support that campaign groups and user groups have given during the past couple of years to get some momentum in the governments dealing with the funding and long term planning issues. If these Groups change their emphasis to campaigning against BW and how it is run they should watch out - they are an easier target and will be hurt.
I agree that there have been some signs recently where BW seems to have lost the plot as far as what users want. The bollards fiasco is certainly a case in point, one which the vast majority of boaters see as a sheer waste of money and, to boot, perhaps even dangerous.
Even if the bollards were needed on H&S grounds, BW was wrong to go ahead without prior consultation. This despite, reportedly, in the light of some local BW staff saying that the plan was 'unwise'.
Another example is the ludicrous bridge labelling scheme. In the Midlands they were photocopies on flimsy wooden posts - many of which soon ended up floating in the cut.
This advanced funding must surely be ring-fenced for maintenance and so I just don't think BW would even consider to spend it on anything else.
I also don't see any risk that assets will be sold off. First, if it was suggested I think there would be such an uproar that the anti-cuts campaign would pale into insignificance.
Having attended a number of excellent meetings hosted by DEFRA and bodies like IWAC I just don't think that anyone is seriously thinking about selling assets. In fact, I am most encouraged about the way that DEFRA is intnt on updating the important Waterways For Tomorrow document that is the central guideline for inland waterways policy. I would go as far as to say that this is the time to support Govt initiatives, not be concerned about them.
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