Boat Licence Costs 2026/27: Canal & River Trust, Thames, Broads and Gold Compared

Every powered boat kept on Britain's inland waterways needs permission to be there, and the bill for that permission is one of the few running costs you can work out to the penny before you buy. The awkward part is that the three biggest navigation authorities in England charge in completely different ways. The Canal & River Trust prices by length and then adds surcharges for width and for having no home mooring. The Environment Agency charges for the River Thames by square metre of boat. The Broads Authority also charges by square metre, at a lower rate, on a different calendar. A fourth product, the Gold licence, bundles the Trust's network with the Environment Agency's rivers.

This guide puts the 2026/27 prices side by side. Every Canal & River Trust figure below was taken from the Trust's own licence price calculator in November 2026, for licences starting on or after 1 April 2026, before any discount. The Thames and Broads figures come from the published charging schedules. Where we have done arithmetic on top of those figures, such as the cost of a Thames registration for a particular boat, we show the working so you can check it against your own measurements.

If you are still choosing a boat, the licence is worth pricing before you make an offer. A 57ft narrowboat and a 12m wide beam with the same asking price can differ by several hundred pounds a year in licence fees alone, and the gap is set to grow until 2028.

The short answer: what a licence costs in 2026/27

For readers who want the headline numbers first, here is what four common boats pay for a full year in 2026/27. The Canal & River Trust (CRT) column assumes a home mooring. Thames and Broads figures assume a powered boat with a conventional engine.

Three things stand out straight away. First, the CRT licence is the most expensive of the single-authority options for every boat in the table, because it covers by far the largest network of the three, spanning canals and river navigations across England and Wales. Second, the Gold licence costs only a little more than a CRT licence on its own, which is why it is worth understanding properly. Third, the Broads is the cheapest place per square metre to keep a powered boat, although it is a self-contained system that a canal boat can only reach by road or by sea.

The rest of this guide explains where each number comes from, which surcharges apply, how the short-term options compare, and when the Gold licence pays for itself.

Who charges what, and where

Before the prices, it helps to be clear about who you are paying. A licence or registration is a permission to keep and use a boat on a particular authority's water. It does not include a mooring, it does not include insurance, and in most cases it does not include keys or windlasses for locks and facilities.

Scotland's canals are run by a separate body, Scottish Canals, with their own permits, and several smaller navigations in England have their own owners. They are outside the scope of this article.

The mismatch of charging years matters more than it first appears. A CRT licence runs for 12 months from whatever date you choose. A Thames registration always expires on 31 December. A Broads toll always expires on 31 March. A Gold licence always expires on 31 December. If you buy a boat in late autumn, as many people do because prices soften after the summer, the authority you are paying can make a large difference to how much of your first payment you actually use. We work through an example of that later.

Canal & River Trust licences in 2026/27

The headline increase

The Trust announced in November 2025 that private and business boat licence fees would rise by 4.85% from 1 April 2026. It based the figure on Bank of England forecasts that inflation would stay at around 3.8% through to April 2026, and set the rise above that level in line with the plan of above-inflation increases for five years that it announced ahead of April 2024. We checked the calculator against last year's price for a 57ft narrowboat with a home mooring: £1,387.40 for a licence starting in April 2025, against £1,454.69 for April 2026. That is exactly 4.85%.

The same announcement gave a blunt reason for the pressure on fees. The Trust's National Boat Count found licence evasion of 11.8% in March 2025, rising to 14.1% in a second count in September. The Trust said evasion was costing the network more than £5 million a year.

Standard licence prices by length

The base price depends only on length. The table below shows 12-month prices for a standard narrow beam boat (2.08m) under the Trust's canal and river licence, which covers its whole network.

Source: CRT licence price calculator, licence starting 1 April 2026, before discounts.

The scale is gentle. Doubling the length of a boat from 10m to 20.5m increases the licence by only about 57%. Each extra metre adds roughly £50 to £65 to the home-mooring price, depending on where in the range the boat sits. For anyone choosing between a 50ft and a 60ft narrowboat, the licence difference is around £200 a year, which is small compared with the difference in mooring fees, blacking and insurance.

The surcharge for boats without a home mooring

Boaters without a home mooring are known as continuous cruisers. Under the British Waterways Act 1995 they must be engaged in "bona fide navigation", which the Trust interprets as genuinely moving around a fair range of the network rather than shuttling up and down one stretch. Most moorings on the towpath are limited to 14 days or less.

Since April 2024 continuous cruisers have paid a surcharge that rises each year. The Trust's published schedule is:

In 2026/27, then, a continuous cruiser pays 15% more than a boater with a home mooring. On a 57ft narrowboat that is £218.21 a year. The surcharge applies on top of the annual 4.85% rise, so the gap widens in two ways at once.

There are some useful details in the Trust's FAQs on the changes. If you pay for a mooring month by month, you pay the surcharge at first, but once you can show six or more consecutive monthly invoices the Trust will refund it retrospectively. Short-term or winter moorings of less than six months do not qualify for a refund. Switching from continuous cruising to a home mooring part way through a licence brings a pro rata refund for whole months, less a £30 administration fee. Going the other way means paying the surcharge pro rata from the date you give up the mooring.

The surcharge for wide beam boats

The Trust defines three beam bands. Band 1 is up to 2.16m (7ft 1in), which covers every traditional narrowboat. Band 2 runs from 2.16m to 3.24m (10ft 7½in). Band 3 is anything wider. Wider boats are being moved onto higher surcharges on the same five-year timetable.

The surcharges are added together rather than compounded. A Band 3 continuous cruiser in 2026/27 pays the base licence plus 38% plus 15%, which is 53%.

Here is what that means in pounds for typical wide beam lengths:

Source: CRT licence price calculator, licence starting 1 April 2026, before discounts.

A 60ft (18.5m) wide beam with a 3.6m beam and no home mooring now pays £2,309.93, against £1,509.76 for a narrowboat of the same length on a home mooring. That is a difference of £800.17 a year for what is, in length terms, the same boat.

Shorter licences

You do not have to license for a full year. The Trust sells 6-month and 3-month licences, plus short-term licences for a month or a week. The 3-month licence is available only to boats with a home mooring, so a continuous cruiser who wants a shorter licence has to buy at least six months.

Source: CRT licence price calculator, licence starting April 2026.

The pattern tells you how to buy. Two 3-month licences cost almost exactly the same as one 6-month licence (£618.68 against £618.74 for a 10m boat), so splitting a season into quarters gives flexibility at no extra cost. A 6-month licence costs 60% of the annual price, so if your boat is ashore or tied up and unused for at least five months of the year, the shorter licence saves money. If it sits on its home mooring afloat, though, it still needs a licence while it is on Trust water, so this only helps if the mooring is off the Trust's network, for example in a private marina on non-Trust water, or the boat is out of the water.

Weekly and monthly licences are aimed at visitors from other waterways. Four weekly licences cost more than a monthly one, and a monthly licence for a 10m boat costs about a sixth of the annual, so anything beyond about six months of visiting in a year points towards an annual licence.

The river-only licence

The Trust also sells a cheaper licence for boats that stay on its larger river navigations. A 12-month river-only licence for a 10m boat costs £618.74, and for a 17.5m boat £872.81, which is 60% of the full canal and river licence. The river-only licence covers:

• the Avon from Hanham Lock to Bath
• the Bow Back Rivers and Limehouse Cut
• the Fossdyke and Witham (Torksey to Boston)
• the Lee Navigation (Hertford to Limehouse) and the Stort Navigation
• the Ouse and Ure (Goole to Ripon)
• the Severn (Stourport to Gloucester)
• the Soar Navigation (Trent Junction to Leicester)
• the Tees (Tees Barrage to Low Worsal)
• the Trent (Shardlow to Gainsborough, including the Nottingham and Beeston Canal)
• the Weaver Navigation (Winsford Bridge to the Manchester Ship Canal)

For a cruiser kept on the Trent or the Severn that rarely goes onto a canal, the saving of more than £400 a year on a 10m boat is substantial. The catch is that a single trip off those rivers onto a canal needs a separate licence, so it makes sense only if your cruising really is river-based.

Discounts that apply to everyone

The calculator prices above are before discounts. Two are open to almost anyone renewing a CRT licence:

• a 2% prompt payment discount if you complete the renewal before the licence start date and pay in full (a single direct debit payment counts)
• a further 0.5% for renewing online

Together they take about £36 off a 57ft narrowboat's £1,454.69 home-mooring licence, bringing it to roughly £1,418. It is not a large sum, but it is free money for anyone who renews on time. The Trust lists further discounts for particular boat types, such as historic boats, on its own pages; check those before you buy if your boat might qualify.

The River Thames: Environment Agency registration in 2026

How the charge is worked out

The Environment Agency charges for the Thames by area. For 2026 the annual charge for a powered boat is £27.31 per complete square metre for the first 80 square metres, and £14.72 per square metre above that. The minimum chargeable area is 5 square metres. The area is length multiplied by beam, rounded down to a whole number.

The Agency's own example is a 5.7m boat with a 2m beam: 11.4 square metres, rounded down to 11, multiplied by £27.31, giving £300.41.

Charges rise each 1 January by no more than the Consumer Price Index figure published the previous September. For 2026 the increase was 3.8%. At the time of writing the 2027 charges had not been published, so the figures here are for registrations running from 1 January to 31 December 2026.

Electric boats pay 75% of the powered charge. Unpowered enclosed boats, which include houseboats and narrowboats whose engines have been removed or permanently disabled, pay 50%.

Worked Thames figures for common boats

Our calculations from the Environment Agency's 2026 Thames charging schedule.

The rounding is worth knowing about. A boat measuring 24.96 square metres pays for 24. Measure length and beam carefully, because a few centimetres can move a boat down a square metre and save £27.31 a year.

Visitor registrations

Boats kept elsewhere can register on the Thames for a month (31 consecutive days), a week (7 consecutive days) or a day. The charge is banded by area.

Source: Environment Agency, River Thames boat registration and other charges, 1 January to 31 December 2026. Intermediate bands from 51 to 80m² are in the full schedule.

Two rules limit how useful these are. Boats kept on Environment Agency waterways cannot buy visitor registrations. And privately owned powered boats with a current annual registration on one Environment Agency waterway can visit the Agency's other waterways free of charge for two periods of seven consecutive days a year. That second rule is a quiet benefit for boats registered on the Anglian waterways or the Medway, but it does nothing for a boat licensed only with the Trust.

Part-year registration on the Thames

Because Thames registrations end on 31 December, the Agency offers a pro rata charge when a boat is registered for the first time part way through the year. That includes a boat registered by a new owner after purchase. The formula is the annual charge multiplied by the number of months remaining, including the current month, divided by 12.

Buy a 57ft narrowboat in November and register it on the Thames, and you pay for two months: £983.16 multiplied by 2/12, which is £163.86. You then renew for the full 2027 year in January.

Insurance and the Boat Safety Scheme on the Thames

The Environment Agency's published Thames registration requirements, which date from 2016, ask for third-party insurance of at least £1 million for powered boats and a valid Boat Safety Scheme certificate for most powered boats. A policy that meets the CRT's £2 million minimum, described below, will normally meet the Thames requirement too, but check the current wording with the Agency before you register.

The Broads: tolls for 2026/27

Annual tolls

The Broads Authority raised its tolls by 3.5% for 2026/27, a decision made in November 2025. The annual toll runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and is charged on any vessel kept in the navigation area or adjacent waters for more than 28 days in a tolls year. That includes canoes, kayaks and paddleboards.

The toll is based on area: hull length multiplied by beam, measured to the nearest centimetre, with any part of a square metre disregarded. A boat of 9.75 square metres is charged as 9. The price per square metre depends on the type of craft.

Source: Broads Authority annual toll schedule, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

The scale is linear, so a motor cruiser's toll is simply its chargeable area multiplied by £20.24. A 10m x 3.4m motor cruiser, a common size for a Broads boat, pays 34 x £20.24, which is £688.16. A sailing yacht with an auxiliary engine counts as a motorised sailing craft and pays £14.98 per square metre. The Authority is clear that any motor fitted to a vessel makes it a motor craft for toll purposes, including an outboard on a sailing dinghy.

Applying for an annual toll part way through the year does not reduce the price. The one exception is for new craft, or craft registered to a new owner and not previously licensed, from 1 January: they get 50% off the annual toll up to 31 March.

Short visits, passage and winter lay-up

For visitors, the Broads sells short visit tolls priced by length rather than area. They can be bought for 1 to 7 days, 8 to 14 days, 15 to 21 days (three times the 7-day price) or 22 to 28 days (four times), up to a maximum of 28 days in any tolls year.

Source: Broads Authority short visit tolls, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

A full 28 days in a 10m motor cruiser costs four times £88.15, which is £352.60. The annual toll for a 10m x 3.4m motor cruiser is £688.16, so a visitor coming for a month a year is better off on short visit tolls. Anyone staying beyond 28 days must switch to the annual toll, with credit given for short visit payments already made.

Other Broads tolls that matter to private owners:

• Passage toll, £19.45. For a single one-way trip through the navigation area in one day, from outside to outside, such as a boat arriving at Great Yarmouth heading to a private mooring beyond the toll area.
• Winter lay-up toll. One third of the annual toll, for a vessel brought into the navigation area and kept on a permanent mooring for one continuous period between 25 September and 30 April. You must name the mooring in advance, and if the boat is used for navigation during the period you pay the balance of the annual toll. For our 10m x 3.4m cruiser that is £229.39.
• Great Yarmouth dues discount. Private boats that can show they have paid their annual Peel Ports Great Yarmouth harbour dues get 50% off the Broads annual or short visit toll.

Broads tolls do not include harbour dues for Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft. Mutford Lock at Lowestoft charges £17.00 per vessel.

The Broads Authority requires third-party insurance with a minimum of £2 million cover and a valid Boat Safety Scheme certificate. Unpowered craft with an area under 6 square metres are exempt from the insurance requirement.

The Gold licence

What it covers

The Gold licence is a joint product of the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency. It covers all of the Trust's canals and rivers plus the Environment Agency's River Thames, River Medway, River Nene, River Great Ouse system, River Ancholme, River Glen above Surfleet Sluice, River Welland above Spalding Lock and River Stour. It is available for any powered boat.

Gold licences run from 1 January to 31 December. If you have not held one before, you can buy a part-year licence. If you have, it starts on 1 January.

Gold prices for 2026

The Trust's Gold licence page says that for boats less than 3.5m wide, prices for 2026 start from £827.34 depending on length, with a 10% surcharge for continuous cruisers applied to the Trust's portion. Its prompt payment discount is already deducted. Boats solely powered by a permanently fitted inboard electric motor get 25% off. Boats over 23.09m are priced on request, and if your home mooring is on the Thames and your boat is wider, the Trust asks you to phone for a quote.

The calculator gave us these 2026 Gold prices:

Source: CRT licence price calculator, Gold licence for the 2026 calendar year.

Gold licences carry their own wide beam surcharge, which the calculator page gives as 13% for beams over 2.16m and 26% for beams over 3.24m. The 10m x 3.4m price above is exactly 26% higher than the narrow beam price for the same length.

Gold prices change each January, based on the increases the Trust and the Environment Agency applied to their own licences the previous April. The 2027 Gold prices had not been published when we checked in November 2026; the calculator returned no price for a January 2027 start.

A part-year Gold licence is priced by whole months remaining. The calculator quoted £1,029.89 for a 57ft narrowboat starting in June 2026, which is seven twelfths of the £1,765.52 annual price.

Gold versus separate licences

The obvious comparison is with buying a CRT licence and a Thames registration separately. For a boat based on the Thames that also cruises the canals, the numbers are clear.

A note on fairness: the CRT price is for a licence starting in April 2026 and the Thames and Gold prices are for the 2026 calendar year, so the comparison mixes two charging periods by three months. The gap is so wide that this does not change the conclusion. And the Gold licence also covers the Medway and the Anglian rivers, which the separate total does not.

When does Gold pay off for a canal-based boat?

The more interesting question is for the boater who lives on the canals and occasionally goes onto the Thames. For that person, the relevant comparison is the extra cost of Gold over a plain CRT licence, set against what they would otherwise pay in Thames visitor fees.

For continuous cruisers the premium is smaller, because the 10% surcharge on Gold applies only to the Trust's portion while the CRT surcharge is 15% of the whole: £109.38 for the 10m boat (£1,295.29 against £1,185.91) and £269.18 for the 57ft boat (£1,942.08 against £1,672.90).

Read that table across and a simple rule emerges. For a 10m boat with a home mooring, the Gold premium is almost exactly the price of one Thames monthly visitor registration. Spend three weeks or more on the Thames in a year and Gold is cheaper. For a 57ft narrowboat the premium is a little more than one monthly visitor fee, so Gold wins once you spend more than about a month on the Thames, or as soon as you add a trip onto the Nene, the Great Ouse or the Medway, which would need separate visitor registrations with the Environment Agency.

There are two caveats. The CRT and Gold charging years do not line up, so moving from a CRT licence to Gold for the first time usually means buying a part-year Gold licence and sorting out the overlap with an existing CRT licence; ask the Trust how a refund on the remaining CRT months would work before you switch. And the Trust's guidance on continuous cruising only counts movement on its own waterways, so a continuous cruiser who spends a long summer on the Thames on a Gold licence will have that time disregarded when the Trust reviews their cruising pattern. The Trust's page also says that a boater offered a restricted 6-month licence for not meeting the movement rules cannot buy a Gold licence.

Gold does not include keys, windlasses or facility cards. A separate Anglian waterways key costs £15.00 from the Environment Agency.

Wide beams: why area-based charging hits harder

The CRT's rising wide beam surcharge has drawn plenty of complaint, and on CRT water a wide beam owner now pays 38% more than a narrowboat owner of the same length if the boat is over 3.24m wide. It is worth seeing how that compares with the Thames and the Broads, where the charge is based on area.

On a pure area basis, a boat 73% wider occupies 73% more water and pays accordingly, with rounding pushing it to 79% in this example. The CRT's band system is still kinder to the widest boats than either of the area-based authorities, even after this year's increase. The difference is that the CRT surcharge is still climbing: by April 2028 it will be 50% for Band 3 boats with a home mooring and 75% for those without.

What that will mean in pounds depends on the base price increases between now and then, which have not been announced beyond 2026/27. To show the scale of the surcharge change alone, take the 12m base price of £1,136.46 and apply the 2028 percentages without any other rise: a Band 3 wide beam with a home mooring would pay £1,704.69, and one without a home mooring £1,988.81. These are illustrations of the surcharge effect, not forecasts, and real prices will be higher once annual increases are added.

For anyone buying a wide beam to live aboard without a home mooring, that trajectory belongs in the budget. A boat that costs £1,738.79 a year to license in 2026/27 is heading towards a licence approaching £2,000 at today's base price by 2028, and more once inflation is added.

The costs every licence needs: BSS and insurance

Boat Safety Scheme certificate

All three authorities require a valid Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) certificate for boats within the scheme's scope. In practice that means any boat with an engine, motor, heating, lighting, cooking facilities, toilet or electrical system. Open boats driven only by an outboard and fitted with none of those systems are outside it. For new boats, the scheme says most navigation authorities accept the builder's Declaration of Conformity in place of a BSS certificate for the first four years.

A BSS examination is needed once every four years. The scheme itself does not set examination prices, which are set by individual examiners competing in a free market, and it advises boaters to shop around. What the scheme does set is the certification fee examiners pay for each certificate they issue: £81 plus VAT, or £97.20, from 1 April 2026.

To give a sense of what owners pay, here are the published prices of three independent examiners we checked in November 2026:

Note that the first examiner's page still quotes the older £76 plus VAT certification fee, so its price may not yet reflect the April 2026 increase. Spread over four years, a £250 to £350 examination works out at roughly £63 to £88 a year. Any repairs needed to pass come on top, and the examination can also prompt work a buyer would want to know about before purchase. If you are buying, the BSS certificate's expiry date is one of the first things to check, alongside a proper survey: see our guide to boat survey costs in the UK for what a pre-purchase survey costs and covers.

Third-party insurance

The Canal & River Trust requires third-party cover of at least £2,000,000 before it will issue a licence. The Broads Authority requires the same £2 million minimum. The Environment Agency's Thames requirements set a lower figure, as described above. The Trust also points out that not all policies cover salvage after a sinking or fire, and that recovery can cost thousands of pounds, so the small print on wreck removal matters as much as the liability limit.

We have not quoted insurance premiums here because they depend heavily on the boat's age, value, use and the owner's record. Our narrowboat insurance guide explains what a typical policy covers and what insurers ask for.

Worked examples: four owners, four bills

The figures above are easiest to use when they are put together for real situations. Each example below uses only published prices and states its assumptions. None of them includes mooring fees, insurance premiums, maintenance or fuel.

Example 1: a 57ft narrowboat on a marina mooring in the Midlands

Assumptions: 17.5m x 2.08m, home mooring in a marina on CRT water, renews online before the start date, BSS examination at £350 every four years, stays on the canal network.

The marina mooring is a separate and usually much larger cost. For a sense of how mooring costs compare between options on coastal and tidal water, see our guide to swinging mooring costs.

Example 2: the same boat as a continuous cruiser who visits the Thames for a month

Assumptions: 17.5m x 2.08m, no home mooring, spends one month on the Thames each summer, renews online before the start date.

At one month on the Thames the two options are within £13 of each other, before the CRT prompt payment discounts, which would tip the balance back to the separate route by about £29. Add a second visit, a fortnight on the Nene or a trip down the Medway, and Gold is clearly cheaper. For this owner the cruising plan for the year decides which licence to buy. One practical point: as explained above, the Trust will not count the Thames month towards the boater's continuous cruising pattern either way.

Example 3: a 12m wide beam liveaboard without a home mooring

Assumptions: 12m x 3.6m, no home mooring, stays on CRT water.

In 2026/27 this owner pays £602.33 more than a narrowboat of the same length with a home mooring (£1,738.79 against £1,136.46). Taking a home mooring of six months or more would bring the licence down to £1,568.32, a saving of £170.47, although the mooring itself will usually cost far more than that. The real budgeting point is the direction of travel. With 11 percentage points of surcharge added in each of the next two years on top of annual base increases, this licence is the one most likely to cross £2,000 by 2028.

Example 4: a 10m river cruiser choosing where to be based

Assumptions: 10m x 3.4m motor cruiser, owner can keep it on the Broads, the Thames or a CRT river, home mooring in each case.

The gap between the cheapest and most expensive option is almost £800 a year for the same boat. For a river cruiser that a new owner intends to keep on one river system, the licensing authority is a significant part of the case for one base over another, alongside mooring prices and the cruising on offer.

Buying in the autumn: how the charging years affect your first payment

A large share of boats change hands between October and March. Because the authorities run different charging years, the timing of a purchase changes what you pay in the first year.

The Broads rule is the one to watch. A 10m x 3.4m motor cruiser bought in November and registered straight away pays £688.16 for a toll that ends on 31 March. Register the same boat on or after 1 January and the toll to 31 March is half that, £344.08. If the boat will be laid up ashore for the winter anyway, waiting costs nothing. If it is afloat on the Broads, check with the Authority whether the winter lay-up toll fits your situation.

The Trust's FAQs on buying and selling a boat explain how licences are handled when a boat changes hands, and they are worth reading before you complete. Check whether the seller's licence, BSS certificate and insurance are current before you agree a completion date. Our guide to buying your first boat covers the paperwork in more detail.

Common questions

Is a boat licence the same as a mooring?

No. A licence or registration allows a boat to be kept and used on an authority's water. It does not give you anywhere to keep it. A boater with a home mooring pays the mooring provider separately; a continuous cruiser on CRT water uses towpath and visitor moorings under the movement rules and pays the 15% surcharge in 2026/27.

Can I take a CRT-licensed boat onto the Thames?

Yes, but you need a separate Environment Agency registration for the Thames, either annual or a visitor registration for a month, week or day, unless you hold a Gold licence. The Trust and the Agency are separate authorities with separate charges.

Do I need a licence if my boat is out of the water?

A CRT licence is needed for a boat kept or used on the Trust's waterways. If your boat is ashore for the winter, a 6-month or 3-month licence for the months it is afloat may cost less than a full year, as the table of shorter licences shows. For the costs of storing a boat ashore, see our guide to winter boat storage costs.

Are electric boats cheaper to license?

On the Thames, electric boats pay 75% of the powered charge. On the Broads, electric motor craft pay £15.47 per square metre against £20.24 for conventional motor craft. The Gold licence offers 25% off for boats solely powered by a permanently fitted inboard electric motor. Check the Trust's discount pages for the current position on its standard licence.

Will prices go up again in April 2027?

The CRT's five-year plan includes above-inflation increases each year, and the surcharges for continuous cruising and wide beams rise again in April 2027, to 20% and to 22% or 44% respectively. The base increase for 2027/28 had not been announced at the time of writing. Thames charges rise each January by no more than CPI, and the Broads sets its tolls each autumn for the following April.

Before you buy: a licence checklist

• Measure the boat's length and beam yourself rather than relying on an advert, because both the CRT bands and the area-based charges depend on them.
• Work out which authority's water the boat will mainly use, and price the licence there before making an offer.
• If the boat is close to a beam boundary (2.16m or 3.24m on CRT water), measure the beam at its widest point and check which band it falls into.
• Check the BSS certificate's expiry date and budget for an examination if it is close.
• Confirm your insurance meets the £2 million third-party minimum required by the CRT and the Broads, and look at the salvage and wreck removal cover.
• If you might spend more than three or four weeks a year on the Thames or the Environment Agency's other rivers, compare Gold with a CRT licence plus visitor registrations.
• On the Broads, check whether registering on or after 1 January would halve your first toll.

The bottom line

In 2026/27 a typical 57ft narrowboat on a home mooring pays £1,454.69 a year to the Canal & River Trust before discounts, and £1,672.90 without a home mooring. The same boat would pay £983.16 a year on the Thames or £728.64 on the Broads, and £1,765.52 for a Gold licence covering the Trust's network and the Environment Agency's rivers together. Wide beams and continuous cruisers face surcharges that keep rising until 2028, which makes the licence a bigger part of the running budget for those boats each year.

The numbers in this guide come from the authorities' own calculators and schedules, and they will change: the CRT's next increase takes effect in April 2027, Thames charges change each January, and Gold prices for 2027 had not been published when we checked. Before you buy, run your own boat's measurements through the CRT licence calculator and the relevant schedule.

If you are looking for a boat for the canals, you can browse narrowboats and barges for sale on Jack & Anchor and price the licence for any listing using the tables above.

Sources

• Canal & River Trust, licence price calculator, prices for licences starting April 2026 and Gold licences for 2026, checked November 2026
• Canal & River Trust, Boat licence fees for 2026-27
• Canal & River Trust, New structure of boat licence pricing
• Canal & River Trust, FAQs on boat licence changes
• Canal & River Trust, long-term boat licences, Gold licences, continuous cruising guide and boat insurance
• Environment Agency, River Thames boat registration and other charges, 1 January to 31 December 2026
• Environment Agency, River Thames boat registration requirements
• Broads Authority, annual toll, short visit toll, other tolls and insurance, Boat Safety Scheme and adjacent waters
• Boat Safety Scheme, Q and A on BSS examinations and fees and charges
• Examiner price pages: boat-safety-examiner.com, Tom Keeling, KP Marine Services

Header photo: Narrowboat near Widewater Lock on the Grand Union Canal by Marathon, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.