Recent media coverage surrounding questions of council tax and houseboat living has prompted renewed public discussion about residential boating in the UK.
At the Residential Boat Owners’ Association (RBOA), we welcome discussion about life afloat. However, we believe this story highlights a much wider issue affecting residential boaters across the UK: the continued lack of clarity, consistency, and recognition of residential boating within public policy.
Living on a boat is not a loophole, nor is it an avoidance of responsibilities. Residential boaters contribute to the communities they live in and, like anyone else, are expected to meet their legal obligations.
However, the realities of residential boating are often far more complex than many people realise.
Questions surrounding council tax, residential status, mooring arrangements, licensing, and legal responsibilities vary significantly depending on circumstances. In principle, council tax is generally due where a mooring has residential planning approval and the boat is a person’s primary residence. However, the reality is often more complicated.
Residential moorings remain in short supply, with many applications for residential planning approval historically refused by local authorities. This can leave some people living afloat in situations where they may wish to pay council tax but are unable to do so because residential moorings are not formally recognised, planning arrangements remain unclear, or there is no consistent framework for how residential boating is treated.
This complexity is precisely why public discussion around life afloat should be informed, balanced, and grounded in an understanding of how residential boating actually works in practice.
While the circumstances of any individual case are a matter for those involved and the relevant authorities, we believe this conversation provides an opportunity to highlight wider structural issues affecting people who live afloat.
The discussion also highlights another longstanding issue for residential boaters: the lack of security of tenure for people living on residential moorings. Even where a mooring has residential recognition, people living afloat currently have limited protection if a mooring provider decides to terminate their agreement.
The RBOA supported proposals to extend stronger protections to residential boaters through the recent Renters Rights legislation. The exclusion of residential moorings from those provisions represented a missed opportunity to provide greater certainty and protection for people whose boat is their home.
Tens of thousands of people across the UK now live afloat, including many key workers and people for whom residential boating provides an affordable and practical housing option. Yet despite the size and importance of the residential boating community, people living afloat often remain poorly recognised within housing, planning, and wider public policy discussions.
For thousands of people across the UK, living afloat is not a novelty or political talking point — it is simply home. Yet many continue to face uncertainty around planning, taxation, mooring security, and representation.
The RBOA will continue to advocate for fair treatment, informed policymaking, and constructive engagement on behalf of people who live on the UK’s inland waterways.
If you live aboard — or believe people who make their homes on the waterways deserve stronger representation and fairer treatment — we invite you to support the RBOA. Full Membership is available for people living aboard, while Associate Membership allows supporters and allies to help strengthen the voice of residential boaters across the UK.