Nottingham boaters living off the grid at the Castle Marina in an “old fashioned” community that look out for another have spoken out about how the cost of living has been impacting them. As bills rise for many households across the country, boaters say they are struggling just as much but haven’t received the same financial help that households have.
Boaters are seeing the price of coal, wood, gas, electricity and food rising, but resident we spoke to said they haven’t had cost of living payments households are entitled to through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Households started receiving monthly discounts of £66 on their energy bills in October as part of the energy support scheme their payments.
The boaters Nottinghamshire Live spoke to are all on the electoral roll and share a fixed address, which is the marina’s. The boaters all use the same energy supplier which isn’t domestic like households but commercially supplied.
The Government said it is working at pace to determine the most practical way of delivering support to households not on standard gas or electricity contracts.
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Barbara Hillier, 63 lives on the boat, Narrowboat Victor. Barbara shared her concerns and said: “We have no landlord relationship, we use the marina as our postal address and have no residential rights.
“How will we get benefits from the government seems like it’s been undecided. We’ve had no cost of living payments at all and the lack of stability in the central government means that things are changing all the time.”
Barbara says that many people living in marinas all over the country are in the same situation. She shared how the cost of living on boats has risen.
Barbara said: “Wood has doubled, this is a smokeless zone so we have to have cured, dried wood. Coal is now £15 for 25kg - two years ago it was £8.50 for the same amount.
“I feel for people living off the radar. This is a moving population too, not everyone chooses to travel but if you do, how will they get their payments?”
The boaters don’t choose their own energy supplier, the marina owner does. Barbara continued: “It’s been worrying for us all.
“We don’t want people feeling sorry for us, we’re just as worried as everyone else, not more worried than anyone else.”
The boaters have commercially supplied electricity. Their electricity has gone up 30p a unit for electricity and 5p for a service charge per unit of electricity used.
Peter Emsley, 72 said: “We just want to be recognised the same as everyone else. We’re perfectly entitled to live on the canal, we chose to live here and it’s totally unfair we’ve received nothing.
“This is a bona fide way of living, everyone seems to be getting help, we get nothing.”
Kat Emsley, 46 lives with her husband at the marina. She said: “Everyone is suffering. We can’t fit fridge freezers onto our boats but we’re quite economical, we don’t flush the loo, we empty it.”
Kat continued and spoke about some of the differences between living on a boat compared to a house. She said: “People have cupboard space, we have to shop every other day not every month, we can’t buy in bulk.”
Many of the boaters we spoke to said they shop at the local Sainsbury’s on Castle Bridge Road. Kat added: “We have to buy bottled gas and that’s gone up exponentially.
“This is an old fashioned boating community and it’s really good, if we can help each other out, we will. It’s getting harder to share - but we still do, it’s like the good old days, I reckon I could name over 100 people living here.”
Boaters pay a similar bill to council tax as it goes through business rates. Boaters pay around £4,000 a year to keep their boats on the marina.
One boater who chose to remain anonymous said: “We want what we’re legally entitled to. I have a diesel range cooker which can be used for heating and diesel has more than doubled in price.
“Other boaters might have electric heating,whatever it is, we just don’t want to be forgotten. We’ve also seen everything go up just like households.”
A government spokesperson has said: “Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, including houseboat residents, will receive support equivalent to both the Energy Price Guarantee, which limits what households can be charged, and the Energy Bills Support Scheme, which provides a £400 rebate to bill payers.
“The Government is working at pace to determine the most practical way of delivering this support. Further details will be announced shortly and payments will be backdated to October.”
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