It looks like the transfer of BW to charity status will be held up due to the time the Parliamentary procedure is expected to take. According to an article by Allan Richards in Narrowboatworld, the Transfer Order could take up to a year. This is because, although the Transfer Order is a Statutory Instrument, the terms of the Public Bodies Act mean that it has to go through the “Super Affirmative” procedure, the highest level of scrutiny by Parliament of a Statutory Instrument. This means it has to be agreed by a majority in both houses of Parliament. Theoretically if both houses do not agree, the transfer may not happen. However, the Tory government has always been hell-bent on transferring BW to a charity. In the 1990s a Tory minister, Nicholas Ridley, was involved in a report that recommended selling off BW’s profitable land and property and transferring the waterways to be run by a charity. Many people believe that both DEFRA and the Government want BW transferred to an arms length body because its continued mismanagement is an embarrassment. You can read Allan’s article here http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/news-flash/3979-canal-a-river-trust-in-doubt