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Devolve Crown Estates properties to Wales to end ‘begging bowl’ culture – Plaid Cymru

09 May 2023 5 minute read
Liz Saville Roberts. Photo Plaid Cymru

The Welsh Government should be given control of Crown properties worth billions, in order to drive prosperity, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader has said.

Liz Saville Roberts said devolving control over the Crown Estate’s properties in Wales could help end a “begging bowl” culture, and give Cardiff more say over financial decision-making.

She also suggested it could be used to provide better energy security and ease the rising cost of living in Wales.

Ms Saville Roberts said it was an “apposite” time to discuss devolution of the estate, with the King’s coronation taking place over the weekend.

The Crown Estate is an independent company which belongs to the monarch for the duration of their reign, though the revenue from its £16 billion property portfolio flows directly to the Treasury.

The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the King’s official duties as head of state, is currently set at 25% of the Crown Estate’s annual profits, including a 10% uplift to pay for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

The estate’s holdings north of the border were devolved to Scotland in 2016, and its revenue now goes to the Scottish Government.

The Crown Estate owns the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles, and Ms Saville Roberts said an arrangement similar to Scotland would give Wales a direct say in how the profits from new floating wind farms planned off the Welsh coast would be spent.

Potential

She told the PA news agency: “The Crown Estate should be devolved to Wales because there is now so much potential, particularly with floating offshore wind, for us in Wales, to make sure that this isn’t just another extractive exercise.”

The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP suggested that if the profits from this were in the hands of the devolved Government in Cardiff Bay, it could be used to provide better energy security and lower heating costs for Welsh homes.

She said it could be a step in transforming Wales’ struggling economy, telling PA: “One of the criticisms that any Welsh politician on the left will face is that we are forever asking for more money, that we are asking for the Barnett Formula to be revised.

“I am very interested in what are the mechanisms that we could bring to Wales that would allow us to build our own economy more effectively, and not to be an adjunct.”

The Plaid MP said previous attempts to raise the issue with the Conservative Westminster Government had been a “non-starter”.

She said her party would be “certainly pushing” the cause if Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour were to win the next general election.

Hypocritical

“It would be deeply hypocritical of Labour to ascend to power in Westminster, when they have held power in Wales since 1999, not to act on something where their longest standing Government have come out in favour of it,” she added.

Ms Saville Roberts, a member of the Privy Council who describes herself as a republican, said she had long raised the matter before it was known a coronation would take place this year.

She said: “It is apposite now of course, because people are considering how the royal family are funded.”

Speaking ahead of the coronation weekend, the Plaid MP said: “I think in terms of the cost-of-living crisis and people making the comparison between a massive public expenditure on a coronation which is not constitutionally necessary, it does make people think about where priorities lie.

“There will be people on the day of the coronation who will have a wonderful day, they will look forward to it, they will enjoy it and I really hope they do. I wish them all the best for that.”

She added: “I want to play my part in building Wales as a nation where we stand on our own two feet, where we are confident of moving into the future, where we are not having to put out the begging bowl, and to work with the people of Wales on small and large suggestions about how to do that.

“I think the devolution of the Crown Estate, it feels fair, it feels equitable, and we could do so much with this.

“It could be one critical step that could make so much difference to the Welsh economy in the furthest westernmost regions of north and south Wales.

“I ask the Government of the day to engage with this, and I would ask Conservatives who say that Welsh Government should get on with the day job, well, this is part of the day job.

“Growing the economy is part of the day job.”

No appetite

Ministers have previously said they are not in favour of Ms Saville Roberts’ proposals.

While serving as secretary of state for Wales, Simon Hart last year told the House of Commons there was “no public appetite at all in Wales to devolve the Crown Estate”.

The Conservative MP, now Government chief whip, also suggested at the time that devolving the estate would “ fragment the market and delay the further development of key projects” in the floating offshore wind sector.

A Crown Estate spokesman said: “The Crown Estate works closely with the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales to manage land and the seabed sustainably over the long term and to bring broader economic, social and environmental benefits to Wales.”


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The Original Mark
The Original Mark
10 months ago

The arguments for why the crown estate should be devolved to Wales is exactly why it won’t be, Westminster isn’t going to give up such a lucrative money maker, and yet again we see this blindness about Starmer, he is part of the establishment, nothing will change if Labour win the next GE.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
10 months ago

Thanks Liz, we need more Plaid MPs in that building and one less Simon Hart…Come on vote this enemy of Cymru into the very long grass…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
10 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Liz could you ask the Young Emperor how spending 6 grand on a chopper could see a profit for the taxpayer…

Trains are so much safer than helicopters, they are probably the biggest killer of Billionaires going and as he rightly has so many dead Brits on his moribund conscience his belief in Karma should edge him toward caution…

hdavies15
hdavies15
10 months ago

Crown Estate plus the share of HS2 consequential would certainly do a lot of good. Maybe not the game changer some people think but a step towards doing things right.

Rob
Rob
10 months ago

Quote: “no public appetite at all in Wales to devolve the Crown Estate”.

Really have you asked? Are you seriously telling us the people in Wales would rather the English benefitted from Welsh resources rather than the Welsh themselves?

Peter Cuthbert
Peter Cuthbert
10 months ago
Reply to  Rob

Perhaps we need a referendum on it…

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
10 months ago

We have the Tories prostrating themselves to please America by championing freedom and independence for Ukraine against the aggressor Russia while holding a knife to Wales throat. You couldn’t make it up its so farcical. Plaid’s Liz Saville-Roberts is right. Devolve the Crown Estate to Wales. We should benefit from our own resources not the English Monarchy & Treasury. Both are our very own Russia, who imposes their ironclad will on a voiceless Wales at Westminster. Enough is enough. Time we found out voice. But a question must be asked. What is Keir Starmer and London Labour’s opinion on the… Read more »

Malcolm Jones
Malcolm Jones
10 months ago

Where were the Welsh labour party when it was given to Scotland they must have been sitting on their hands and not standing up for Wales do you ever see a Welsh labour MP asking any questions about Wales in question time nothing like the Scottish MPS always fighting for Scotland

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