In July, British Waterways went from being a state-run body to a new charitable entity, the Canal & River Trust. Pui-Guan Man looks at what the change has meant for its in-house team

When it became apparent that a large swathe of public bodies was going to face swingeing cuts in funding as the Government clamped down on quangos, British Waterways (BW) – the body responsible for 2,000 miles of rivers and canals in England and Wales – began to look at alternative sources of income to meet the deficit.

Ahead of the Government's decision in 2010 to cut almost 200 public agencies in what has been dubbed "the bonfire of the quangos", BW began a strategic review, turning away from a