Majority of Welsh county councils now support devolution of Crown Estate
Emily Price
The majority of county councils in Wales have now officially expressed their support for the devolution of responsibility for the Crown Estate to the Welsh Government.
There are 22 local authorities in Wales and on Wednesday (February 19), Wrexham Council became the 12th to vote in favour of handing power over Wales’ Crown Estate assets to the Welsh Government.
So far, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham, Gwynedd, Powys, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire councils have all voted in support of similar motions in their respective areas.
Engagement
The Labour for an Independent Wales group helped to secure the milestone win in Wrexham through cross-party engagement with councillors.
The motion was passed 44 votes for and 7 against with 4 abstentions.
The Secretary of Labour for an Independent Wales, said: “The vote in Wrexham represents the continued discussion and debate within Wales about how best to manage our nation’s resources.
“That it follows similar motions in eleven other Welsh local authorities, illustrates the consensus across Wales that the current model is not in the best interests of the people and the local economy.
“It is important to note that these discussions have included representatives from across the political spectrum within these respective local authorities, and this vote has helped to show how a positive outcome can be achieved by engaging constructively across party lines.”
Treasury
The Crown Estate is a huge collection of assets owned by the British monarchy, which includes vast swathes of urban, coastal and maritime land worth £16 billion.
It is run as a business, independent of government, but its profits are delivered over the border to the UK Treasury each year.
An annual payment is also made to the monarch in the form of the Sovereign Grant, currently set at 12% of the total.
In 2016, Scotland secured devolution of its Crown Estate, allowing its revenues to be reinvested directly in Scottish communities.
It’s widely thought that Wales is treated unfairly by the Crown Estate because whilst struggling councils are forced to fork out for access to coastline and public footpaths, Crown Estate profits skyrocket amid investment in renewable energy projects.
Reinvested
Recent figures unearthed by Plaid Cymru revealed that three councils in south-west Wales are paying over £105,000 a year in Crown Estate fees to allow the public access to Welsh land.
The argument for devolution is that local authorities are better placed to manage and invest in these assets for the benefit of their communities and the Welsh economy.
The Secretary of Labour for an Independent Wales said: “Today’s announcement is an important step in a much larger discussion, and it is encouraging to see how cross-party cooperation has led to this point.
“This highlights the importance of continuing the discussion at all levels as we move forward. The discussion surrounding the devolution of the Crown Estate is a complex one, and the opinions of all parties will need to be taken into account as we move forward.
“The people of Wales will need to continue to engage in this important conversation. This proves there is a democratic consensus that the UK Government must listen to and act on.”
The Welsh Government says its position is still that the management of the Crown Estate should be devolved to Wales.
But a recent vote on the Crown Estate Bill saw Labour MPs vote down a Plaid Cymru amendment that would have seen asset powers handed to Welsh ministers in Cardiff Bay.
Next week, Plaid Cymru will make a final bid to alter the Bill during a debate in the House of Commons.
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Just look at that picture. What a load of nonsense, eh!! 2025 and this sort of thing still goes on as if the king is a god.
I dunno – someone in the States today has published a picture of ‘the Donald’ with a crown on top of his coiffured orange locks!
Funny how someone who is allegedly adored is often reduced to a cartoon character by his own followers. There again anyone who paints his face orange and often stinks of a soiled nappy shouldn’t normally be taken seriously and maybe only feature in cartoons.
Responsibility for, and financial benefits from, the Crown Estate in Scotland was devolved to the Scottish Parliament in 2017. Eight years later the Crown Estate in Wales has not been devolved to the Senedd and successive Tory and Labour UK governments continue to refuse to do so. How on earth can they justify such blatant double standards – favouring Scotland and disadvantaging Wales?
To their credit, I’d say, but I doubt those in positions of power when it comes to this issue will pay very much heed. Starmerite Labour at Westminster is too timorous to be willing to seriously rock the establishment boat.
If the majority of councils in Wales favour the devolution of the Crown Estate, a Senedd majority also, and a petition , which I signed to my local MP, will also have a majority of signatories wanting its devolution, why then is UK Labour continuing to drag its feet. Are they attempting to ape the Tryweryn vote where 39/40 (one abstention) Wales MPs voted to stop the flooding of Capel Celyn and Wales representatives were ignored. And If England’s PM Keir Starmer and so-called WS cohort Jo Stevens consider Ukraine’s sovereignty & democracy paramount, then we as the native people… Read more »
The MP & MS for Ynys Món are in favour of devolving the Crown Estates to Cymru, BUT why has’nt the Council of Ynys Món not yet come out in favour or are they against.
It isn’t owned by the monarchy but by the ‘Crown’, the British state, which is not the monarchy. It should be called the National Estate. It is used as a metric to gauge the amount of the Sovereign Grant but none of it contributes to the Sovereign Grant which is paid by the taxpayer and would be paid even if there were no CE.