FOI request reveals staggering breakdown of Crown Estate assets in Wales
Emily Price
Fresh calls have being made for powers over the management of the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales following the revelation that its asset value amounted to a staggering £853m last year.
The Crown Estate is an independent company which belongs to the monarch for the duration of their reign, though the revenue from its £16bn property portfolio flows directly to the Treasury.
Nation Cymru was able to obtain a copy of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request which revealed a breakdown of the value of the property and asset groups that made up the Crown Estate in Wales for the 2022 – 2023 financial year.
The breakdown for the property group values were as follows:
- Offshore Wind and Marine Energy £793,146,428
- Coastal £21,208,350
- Minerals £21,841,276
- Cables and Interconnectors £14,400,000
- Rural agriculture and others £2,434,400
The group values amounted to a combined worth of £853,030,454.
In addition, the FOI response also provided a full 50 page list of all the assets broken down by location as well as property group.
The Crown Estate owns the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles and calls have been made previously by the Plaid Cymru Westminster Leader, Liz Saville Roberts to form an arrangement similar to Scotland which would give Wales a direct say in how the profits from new floating wind farms planned off the Welsh coast would be spent.
The estate’s Scottish assets were devolved to Scotland in 2016, and its revenue now goes to the Scottish Government.
The Sovereign Grant, which is taken from public spending to cover the expenses of the royal household, is determined as a proportion of Crown Estate profits.
In July this year, following record breaking profits raked in by offshore leasing of wind farms it was announced by the Treasury that The Sovereign Grant will now be set at 12% of the Crown Estate’s net profits next year, down from 25% on previous years.
Profits
Arfon Jones from Cymru Republic, who initiated the FOI also requested the details of Crown Estate profits specifically for assets / property in Wales but this information was not provided.
The FOI response from the Crown Estate stated: “We run a single set of accounts at an enterprise level and expenditure is incurred for the benefit of the whole portfolio and cannot be attributed to individual assets.
“It is therefore not possible to calculate the value of net revenue profit generated from The Crown Estate’s assets in Wales, and we do not hold this information.”
Arfon Jones said: “We were prompted to make this Freedom of Information request when we heard that the system for allocating the profits from the Crown Estate to the Monarchy had changed.
“We were surprised by the extent of the Crown Estates in Wales, which could be put to better use by alleviating child poverty, improving the wellbeing of the people of Wales, as well as shaping and expanding our renewable future in consultation with the people of our nation.
“A share of £853 million could make a massive difference to Wales, and like Scotland, it should be devolved now.
“We have sent the information to Liz Saville Roberts MP as she has been raising the issue of the Crown Estate at Parliament, but should anyone else wish to raise awareness of this issue, or support us in campaigning, please get in touch.”
Campaign Co-ordinator for Climate Cymru, Bethan Sayed, said: “We can see from this that tidal energy is the big player for the Crown Estate, and with aims to reach Net Zero by 2035 in Wales – an ambitious plan indeed- can you imagine what we could do if we had the power over our own natural resource here in Wales, as opposed to it being in the hands of the Crown Estate?
“I also note that the Crown Estate has seen fit to appoint a Wales Director in August last year. This must show that they are thinking of the potential in Wales. If so, let us have a discussion with them and tell them – devolve the Crown Estate to Wales.”
Benefit
Speaking before a debate in the Senedd in July, Delyth Jewell MS, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson on energy and the environment said: “Wales’ natural resources should be controlled by Wales for the benefit of the communities of Wales, not Westminster.
“This is no more true than with the Crown Estate – a company which holds assets in Wales, valued at more than £600m in 2021, and yet the profits of which go straight to the UK Treasury.
“Profits made from Wales’ natural resources should be kept in Wales to boost our economy, not that of the UK Treasury. It should be as simple as that.
“It’s the case in Scotland, where those powers have been transferred and the revenue from Scottish assets now go straight to the Scottish Government.
“That’s why we’re calling for those powers to be devolved to Wales. With that money, thousands of well-paid green jobs could be created, research into solutions to tackle the climate crisis could be furthered, and opportunities to reap benefits from our own natural resources could be maximised.
“Ultimately, it’s the people of Wales who should be able to direct how best to benefit from that economic opportunity – not Westminster, and this starts with the Senedd voting for Plaid Cymru’s motion to demand power over the Crown Estate.”
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The rape of the Fair country goes on.Wake up Wales
If the King, formally the Prince of Wales and his offspring, the current Prince of Wales actually gave a damn about Wales, it would be so much easier to get access to these much needed funds.
Who the bloody hell do these “monarchs” (I can think of other titles) think they are? We must be out of our minds to allow these outsiders to stake a claim for what really belongs to Cymru and the Cymry. Owning the seabed for 12 nautical miles for goodness sake!!! We should tell them to “go away”. Everything they own has been given to them free of charge or looted over time from the four corners of the globe causing hardship on other countries. If they had to give everything back they would not have a pot to pee in!… Read more »
His family have a history of stealing, from Wales & loads of other countries around the world, for hundreds & hundreds of years!!
They are not very transparent. Initially they were considering exempting this information under Section 43 FOIA which is commercial confidentiality but sadly for them the exemption is only partial and one has to weigh up the public interest test. It wasn’t difficult to argue that it was in the public interest to disclose this information which they did reluctantly.
It occurs to me that it is possible to get a similar figure for assets in Scotland and, because the revenue goes to the Scottish Government, a figure for income up there. That at least would provide a guide to the rate of return the Crown Estate get from their assets, and give us some idea on how much revenue Wales is missing out on.
Daylight robbery. Westminster and the English monarchy are raking it in at our expense. Wealth extraction from Wales is endemic within the current political/economic system, it keeps Wales impoverished and then blames Wales for being poor
It is clear that, far from a benign steward or trustee of the commons, the Crown Estate has and continues to exploit natural resources that simply do not belong to it. So what can be done? Successive governments have fostered this relationship between the Crown and the commons, often to fund vote-winning tax cuts as well as help pay for the monarchy’s upkeep. This is a position which needs to be reversed so that the Crown Estate once again becomes the steward of the commons while the country benefits in its entirety: a sovereign wealth fund in place of the sovereign’s wealth… Read more »
I think when it comes to cut throat opportunists (the types that have managed to cling onto power at any costs for generations, and their contemporary American dream taken out of context counterparts), some people are only as green as won’t prevent them from continuing to get richer on the backs of others. They clearly don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’. Which is a tricky situation when dealing with a planet not people. The idea that climate isn’t threatened by them, can’t be bought, bullied or badgered and will win over their greedy little interests one way or… Read more »
Oh yeah, let’s ask thieves to nicely return what was never theirs to begin with. As if they’d listen!