CRT fees: what a narrowboat licence costs

CRT fees in short

A 12-month Canal & River Trust licence for a traditional narrowboat runs from £980.92 for a 30-footer to £1,614.98 for a 70-footer with a home mooring, and 15% more than that without one . A Canal & River Trust licence is priced by length and width, then increased by a surcharge if the boat has no home mooring and a further one if it is wider than a standard narrowboat. Both surcharges rise every April to 2028 on a schedule CRT has published. On the Trust’s own pages the “Licence fees” link goes to a calculator rather than to a price list (useful downloads and licence fees, read 11 September 2026), so every figure on this page was read off that calculator on a stated date rather than carried over from another guide. The licence is one line of the budget: mooring, insurance and a Boat Safety Scheme certificate sit on top.

How the licence is priced

On the Canal & River Trust network (about 2,000 miles of England and Wales) the licence is charged by length and width, with the length measured per metre. That is why a 30-footer and a 60-footer pay very different amounts. Two surcharges then sit on top, and CRT has published the schedule for both through to 2028:

• No home mooring. Phased in from April 2024 and rising every year: +5% in 2024, +10% in 2025, +15% in 2026, +20% in 2027 and +25% in 2028. If you intend to cruise continuously, that is a quarter on top of the base fee by 2028, and it is worth building into the sums now.
• Beam. A standard narrowboat is under 2.16m and pays nothing extra. Between 2.16m and 3.24m the surcharge is +19% in 2026, rising to +25% by 2028. Over 3.24m it is +38% in 2026, rising to +50% by 2028. This is the line that makes a widebeam a materially different proposition from a narrowboat, and it is the one most cost guides leave out.

On top of all that, CRT raised fees 4.85% from 1 April 2026 and reviews them annually.

Narrowboat licence cost: the 2026 figures

These are not our numbers. Each one was read from the Trust's own licence price calculator on 11 September 2026, for a 12-month Canal and River licence starting 1 October 2026, on a boat of 2.08m beam (a traditional narrowboat, under the 2.16m surcharge threshold), with no discounts applied.

The continuous-cruiser column runs 15% above the home-mooring column in every band, give or take a penny, which is the no-home-mooring surcharge for 2026 working as CRT published it. Your own figure will differ if your beam is over 2.16m, if you buy six or three months rather than twelve, or if a discount applies. Check yours on the calculator before you budget: CRT reviews these every April.

The Trust does not put a table in front of you that covers every boat and every circumstance, because the variables are the boat itself, and the surcharges above are exactly why two boats of the same length can pay very different amounts. If you are here for a gift rather than a budget, the canal boat art tradition is a good place to start.

Get the exact number

Don't budget from a guide: use the official Canal & River Trust licence calculator, which gives the exact price once you enter the boat's length, beam and whether it has a home mooring. If you're on the non-tidal Thames or other Environment Agency waters, those are licensed separately, and a few waterways have their own navigation authorities: check which network you'll actually use.

What sits on top of the licence

• Mooring. The biggest variable: from a few hundred a year for a basic spot to several thousand for a residential berth in a popular area. Continuous cruisers avoid a home mooring but must keep moving.
• Insurance. CRT requires at least £2,000,000 third-party cover before it will licence the boat; fully comprehensive costs more.
• Boat Safety Scheme (BSS). A certificate every four years: the boating equivalent of an MOT. Examiners set their own fees and the scheme publishes no figure, so get a quote from a local examiner rather than budgeting from a guess.
• Upkeep. Blacking the hull, engine servicing, fuel, gas, coal and the occasional surprise. The licence is the predictable bit.

Which authority licenses your water?

The first question isn't how much, it's who. The licence you buy depends on the waterway you'll actually use, and three sorts of authority run the system.

• Canal & River Trust. The big one. Around 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales. If you picture a narrowboat, you're picturing CRT water. This is the licence most owners need, charged by length and width.
• Environment Agency. Licenses its own waters separately: the non-tidal Thames, the Anglian rivers like the Nene and Great Ouse, the Medway. A CRT licence buys you nothing here. The EA charges on its own scale, and it's a wholly separate transaction.
• Other navigation authorities. A handful of waterways are run by neither: the Broads, some independent canals and river trusts. Each sets its own rules and fees. Niche, but worth checking if your route strays off the main network.

If you'll only ever potter on one network, buy that network's licence and stop there. The complication starts when you want to cross between them. That's where the Gold Licence earns its keep: a single combined licence covering the main CRT network and EA waters together, sold jointly by the two bodies. For a boater who genuinely uses both (say a Thames cruise that joins the canal system) it can cost less and save a second bit of admin than two standalone licences. For everyone else it's money spent on water you won't touch. CRT gives a starting figure: If your boat is less than 3.5 metres (11'5") wide, the cost starts from £827.34 (gold licences, read 10 September 2026), which covers every narrowboat by beam. Add up your two separate licences first, then compare. Don't assume the bundle wins.

Continuous cruising licence cost

The CRT licence asks one question that changes the price and the way you live: do you have a home mooring? A home mooring is a permanent berth (a marina spot, an end-of-garden mooring, a residential basin) that your boat can return to. Declare one and you pay the standard licence for your length.

Declare none and you're a continuous cruiser. The licence costs more: CRT added a surcharge for boats without a home mooring, phasing in on a published schedule: 5% in 2024, 10% in 2025, 15% from April 2026, then 20% in 2027 and 25% from 2028. So an older "5%" figure is out of date: for 2026 it's 15%, on its way to a quarter on top. The surcharge isn't a penalty so much as a charge for using the network as your only base. Confirm the current figure on the calculator.

The bigger catch is the obligation that comes with it. A continuous cruiser has no home to sit at, so the law requires the boat to be genuinely on the move: used "bona fide for navigation" (British Waterways Act 1995, s.17) and not staying in one neighbourhood. In practice you move every fourteen days at most, and across a real range over the year, not shuffling back and forth along the same mile. CRT tracks this through sightings. Fall short and your licence renewal can be refused or restricted. Continuous cruising saves the mooring fee, but it buys you a duty to keep travelling: fine if that's the life you want, a problem if you'd hoped to park up near work.

One more note for 2026: CRT brought in extra surcharges for wide-beam boats from April 2026. Those don't touch a standard narrowboat. If someone quotes you a wide-beam figure, it isn't your number. The threshold is published, so you can check rather than assume: CRT's licence calculator states that for boats with a beam over 2.16m a surcharge of 19% will be applied and for boats over 3.24m a surcharge of 38% will be applied, for licences starting on or after 1 April 2026 (a Gold Licence carries reduced rates of 13% and 26%). A traditional narrowboat at 6ft 10in is about 2.1m, so it sits under the first threshold by roughly six centimetres — which is exactly why it is worth knowing your actual beam. Read on the Trust's own calculator page, 10 September 2026.

Discounts worth asking about

The headline price isn't always the price you pay. A few reductions come up regularly: none guaranteed, all worth a question before you renew.

• Pay annually, not monthly. Spreading the licence over instalments is convenient, but it usually carries a small premium over paying the year up front. If the cash is there, the lump sum is normally cheaper.
• Prompt payment and renewing online. CRT publishes both: If you renew your boat licence by paying in full before it expires, you can get a 2% prompt payment discount off your licence fee, and There is also a discount of 0.5% for renewing online (long-term boat licences, read 11 September 2026). To qualify for the 2% you must apply before the licence start date and pay in full, which can include a single direct debit payment.
• Charity and historic craft. Recognised charitable use and certain historic or heritage boats can attract concessions. The criteria are specific, so don't assume: ask CRT whether your boat qualifies.
• Electric and low-emission boats. This one CRT publishes rather than leaves to a phone call: a 25% discount is issued for boats solely powered by a permanently fitted inboard electric motor (Canal & River Trust, read 10 September 2026). Note the wording: solely, permanently fitted and inboard. A hybrid or an outboard is not what it describes.

All of these move year to year. Treat them as prompts, not promises: check the current CRT offers at renewal rather than budgeting on a discount that may have gone.

The full annual budget

The licence is the line everyone quotes, and the one that matters least to your overall spend. Here's the shape of a real year: figures left deliberately vague, because yours depend on the boat, the berth and how hard you cruise.

• Licence. Predictable. Set by length, width and your mooring status, reviewed annually. The figure you can plan around.
• Mooring. Usually the biggest single cost, and the widest spread: a basic rural spot against a residential berth in a sought-after town are different worlds. Continuous cruisers trade this for the duty to keep moving.
• Insurance. Third-party cover is required for the licence. Fully comprehensive costs more and is sensible on a boat you live aboard or have spent real money on.
• Boat Safety Scheme. A certificate every four years — strictly, four years minus a day. Examiners set their own fees and the Boat Safety Scheme publishes none, so ring a local examiner for a quote. Spread across four years it's small, but it lands as a lump, so set it aside.
• Upkeep. Hull blacking every few years, annual engine service, fuel, gas, coal or wood, pump-outs, and the surprises a steel boat in water will always find. This is the bit that wanders.

Add it up and the licence is often a fraction of the total. Budget for the whole picture (the predictable lines and the ones that move) and the licence stops being the thing you worry about.

What happens if you don't licence

The licence isn't optional, and CRT enforces it. An unlicensed boat on the network gets noticed: patrol officers log boats, and a craft without a current licence, valid insurance or a Boat Safety Scheme certificate is flagged.

The first steps are letters and notices: a demand to licence or remove the boat, with a deadline. Ignore those and the Trust can escalate to a court order and, ultimately, removal of the boat from the water: the process boaters call Section 8, after the power in s.8 of the British Waterways Act 1983. A Section 8 notice typically gives 28 days to remove the boat (a court order is needed first for a residential craft). The boat can then be lifted out, stored and, if charges go unpaid, sold to recover costs. It's slow, and CRT would rather you simply licensed, but it's real, and the storage and recovery bills dwarf the licence you avoided. Keeping the licence, the insurance and the BSS current is far cheaper than the alternative: and it's the price of using a network somebody has to maintain.

More on the life

The licence is one of the costs you take on when buying her, and the smallest of them. Buying a narrowboat puts it beside the survey, the mooring and the insurance. For moorings, the rhythm of the boating year and the difference between liveaboards and continuous cruisers, see our guide to narrowboat life. If you are marking the start of someone's boating life, a print of the boat name and the date makes a fitting gift: first-year-afloat gifts, or browse the full range of canal boat gifts.

Written by Craig Fearn, Narrowboat Gifts. Last updated 10 September 2026.