A new online portal has gone live, allowing residential boaters to apply for financial support for energy bills. While UK households were able to access the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS), only now is the equivalent support available to households not directly connected to the grid.

The portal went live on 27 February 2023.

People whose main home is a boat on a permanent residential mooring can apply for financial support via the government’s website. Applicants need to have: 

  • an email address and phone number (if they have one);
  • their bank account details (a UK current account in their name);
  • proof of address, if not already registered for Council Tax payments, which can be uploaded.

The announcement follows on from the Energy Prices Act, which committed the government to providing an alternative fund.  

Boaters in Britain have seen a steep rise in the price of LPG, used for heating and cooking, this winter. The price of red diesel – used in boat heaters and engines – has also increased by at least 20 per cent in the last year. Costs of coal and wood have also risen.

Speaking to The Guardian, Ema Pightling, 29, a charity worker from Bradford, says she has been struggling to heat her narrowboat in the face of mounting costs.

“This winter has been horrific,” she says. “We’ve been waking up at minus six degrees. It takes a lot of coal and wood to heat up. People are starting to burn possessions – old clothes, old socks, T-shirts. We’ve had times where we’ve had to because we’ve not been able to afford wood and coal.”

Lecturer Carolyn Edwards, who lives on a boat in Leeds city centre, told the outlet that a 13kg bottle of propane has “risen from £30 to £45 over the last year” and that a bag of coal has “doubled to £16 over the past two years.”

She adds: “In October, I’d say it went up by about another 50-60 per cent again. This winter is much more expensive.”

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