"This agreement is a big step towards achieving ready access to all agency waters for a wider variety of boaters, " said David Lawrence, head of navigation and recreation at the EA. "We are committed to ensuring that boating is accessible and affordable to a much greater number of people in the future."

"We are really enthusiastic that access to the Thames will now be included in our membership, " commented Paul Owen, chief executive of the British Canoe Union. "It has been our long term goal to achieve this and we now look forward to increasing our membership and encouraging more canoeists to visit the Thames as a result of this move."

In addition to the Thames, BCU members will be registered for the EA's Anglian Waters, the Medway and the Broads, British Waterways rivers and canals, Basingstoke Canal, Rochdale Canal, the River Wey and Godalming Navigations, River Avon-Alveston to the Severn, and Bridgwater Canal in Manchester.