Call to devolve crown estate to Wales to be heard
Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter
A call for another Welsh council to back Crown Estate land being devolved to the Welsh Government, with claims it could bring in an extra £50m a year to Wales, is to be heard by councillors later this week.
A notice of motion before the Ceredigion County Council meeting of December 12 by Cllr Catrin M S Davies, seconded by Cllr Alun Williams says: “The Crown Estate owns 65 per cent of Wales’ riverbeds and beaches, as well as more than 50,000 acres of land – valued at over £603m. Proceeds from these go to the Crown Estate, funding the Royal Family and contributing to the UK Treasury.
“The Crown Estate has recently reported an unprecedented profit, with a £658.1 million increase from last year – bringing the total net profit to £1.1 billion.
Support
It adds: “In 2023, the section of the Crown Estate devolved to the Scottish Government generated £103.6 million into the public coffers in Scotland.
“A recent YouGov poll found that 58 per cent of respondents supported devolving the Crown Estate to Wales.”
It calls for Ceredigion County Council to declare that “we believe that the responsibility for the Crown Estate should be devolved to the Welsh Government,” adding: “Any profits generated by the Crown Estate on Welsh land, foreshores and riverbeds should remain in Wales, benefiting our residents and communities.
“Responsibility for the Crown Estate is already devolved to the Scottish Government, and the same must happen in Wales to ensure that profits from our natural resources are invested for the benefit of the Welsh people.”
Financial pressures
It continues: “The council notes the serious financial pressures facing this Authority, as with other authorities across Wales, and highlights that devolution of the Crown Estate could bring an estimated £50m a year to Wales.
“We therefore call for the Crown Estate to be devolved to the Welsh Government, in line with Scotland, so that WE in Wales – and, in turn, those of us in Ceredigion – can benefit from our natural resources.
“We call on the First Minister of Wales to put pressure on the UK Prime Minister to devolve the Crown Estate to Wales as a matter of urgency.
“We call on the UK Prime Minister to take immediate action to devolve the Crown Estate to Wales.”
The notice of motion will be heard at the December 12 meeting.
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Come on Wales let’s,s get this done,the Crown Estate is ours.
I’ve just emailed my local councillor in Ceredigion to ask him to support this motion. I’ve no doubt that it will be supported but the more that make their feelings known to their representatives, all across Cymru, the better. It needs to happen now.
As the ‘unselfish idealist’ Michael Davitt wrote in his second resolution for the National Land League in 1879: ‘…..any system which sanctions its monopoly by a privileged class or assigns its ownership and control to a landlord caste, to be used as an instrument of usurious or political self seeking, demands from every aggrieved Irishman an undying hostlity…