The Canal and River Trust’s income has risen 11 per cent in the last 12 months to £180.5m, according to its latest set of annual accounts.
The Canal and River Trust’s annual accounts for the year 2014/15 show that the organisation’s total income rose by £18.3m from £162.2m to £180.5m in the year ending 31 March 2015. In the process, the Canal and River Trust has become the 13th largest charity in the UK based on total income.
The accounts show that the organisation’s total spend increased by 10.4 per cent, from £125.3m in 2013/14 to £138.3m in 2014/15. Of that total a combined £37.9m was spent on maintenance, repairs and both major and minor infrastructure works.
Volunteering hours have also increased according to the report, with volunteers supplying more than 400,000 hours of their time to work on Canal and River Trust projects. The charity spent £18.4m on volunteering activities.
The charity spent £58.3m in total employment costs in 2014/15 and employed over 1,500 people. Of those, 60 employees at the trust were paid £60,000 or more a year in 2014/15, down from 65 the year before.
Richard Parry, chief executive of the Canal and River Trust, received a salary of £180,782. Two employees of the charity received higher remuneration packages than Parry.
2014/15 also saw the launch of “an ambitious vision for the Trust” supported by a 10-year strategy of “wider public engagement, improved customer service and increased community development” to help further restoration of derelict waterways and continue volunteering growth.
Parry said: “When the Trust was first conceived, those involved must have hoped for something like the year we have enjoyed, with growing income and more work delivered – and with more interest in canals than since the heyday of the Industrial Revolution.
“We’ve established a strong financial foundation; inspired growing interest in visiting, caring for, and using our canals and rivers; and developed an ever-widening range of relationships with third parties willing to promote, fund and support us.
“The creation of the charity provided the opportunity to secure the waterways’ long term future and to make them central to public life. Whilst we know there is much more we can do, the progress we have made shows what is possible.”
