Plaid Cymru renews calls for devolution of Crown Estate as it reports record profits
Plaid Cymru has renewed calls for the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales following the announcement of record £1.1bn profits earlier today (24 July).
The Crown Estate said earnings surged by more than £658 million during the year ending March 31, from £443 million the previous year.
The spike in profits was mainly down to option fees, payments made by companies to reserve a patch of the seabed to eventually build their wind turbines on.
The Crown Estate owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, stretching up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland, and leases part of it to wind farm operators.
Profits are paid directly to the Treasury, which then hands on a portion of the money to the monarchy, known as the Sovereign Grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family.
The surge in profits means that King Charles is set for a £45m pay increase, more than 50% of his official annual income.
Officials said the substantial increase in the sovereign grant in 2025-26 and 2026-27 will be used to help fund the final stages of the 10-year £369 million renovation of Buckingham Palace.
‘No justification’
Plaid Cymru Energy spokesperson in Westminster, Llinos Medi MP, said there was “no justification for the profits of renewable energy projects being funnelled out of poor coastal communities in Wales and used to renovate Buckingham Palace”.
In Scotland, where the Crown Estate is devolved, net revenues generated from the Scottish Crown Estate marine assets are allocated to councils to support community benefit projects in their areas.
In 2023/2024 this amounted to £11.1 million. Higher amounts of this money was given to rural and relatively deprived areas in Scotland such as the Shetland Islands (£1.7 million), Highlands (£2.8 million) and Argyll and Bute (£1.5 million).
The new Ynys Môn MP also reiterated her party’s calls for the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest profits into Welsh communities, based on similar schemes in countries like Norway, where vast fossil fuel profits were ploughed back into the economy.
Poverty
“The wealth generated from our natural resources should benefit our people and our communities as they do in Scotland, not be diverted to London,” the MP for Ynys Môn said.
“I am proud that Wales is playing a leading role in offshore wind generation, with Gwynt y Môr off our northern coast being the fifth-largest operating offshore wind farm in the world. Profits from the leasing of the seabed go straight to the Treasury, with a portion for the King, despite some of the coastal communities that look out to the wind farm facing some of the worst poverty in the UK.
“In the General Election, Plaid Cymru outlined plans for a Sovereign Wealth Fund that would invest profits from the leasing of the seabed into Welsh communities. Now, with four MPs in Westminster, we will be using every parliamentary device at our disposal to ensure that the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales is considered seriously by the UK Labour Government.
“A poll carried out last year suggested that an overwhelming majority of people in Wales want the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales, just as is already the case in Scotland. Labour could prove to the people of Wales that it respects our nation and is serious about investing in our communities.”
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If the Crown Estate profits are not devolved then it will prove that Labour sees Wales as nothing more than a source of cannon fodder for votes.
Where were the Welsh labour MPS when the crown estate money was passed to Scotland and not to Wales they never did anything it’s totally unacceptable that they just sat on their hands and we still vote for them.the same thing we still voted labour after they stole the money from the fund for the children of aberfan God help Wales labour won’t
ALL parties who truly represent Wales should be calling for a stop to the theft.
I echo Plaid Cymru MP Llinos Medi sentiments. Devolve the Crown Estate to Wales now! Sadly England and those treacherous self-serving Wales Labour & Conservative MPs prefer a poverty stricken country & people dependent on Whitehall handouts. They know we are blessed with an abundance of natural resources which they cynically exploit that makes billions for the English Treasury & Monarchy and we get absolutely nothing. Enough is enough. Time to right this wrong!
Yep, They fear a prosperous Wales independent of The UK or England more than anything. And For many different reasons! 1. We are sitting on an abundance of natural resources as stated, especially Gold and Water, 2. The fear of when the UK breaks up, addressing who gets to keep the term British in international affairs, the Natives of which the term was coined for or the English converts? (This extends to the name of the currency used by both, the name of Flags etc), and this is a discussion the Unionist don’t want anyone having.
Westminster, as usual is doubling done on this issue and refusing to devolve the Welsh Crown Estates. Our only way to wrestle the wealth off the treasury and crown is by becoming an independent nation, With independence we can force payments or eject them from our coast.
If Westminster and King Charles had any regard for Wales they would hand back the Crown Estates but they wont. They dont care
Is that what they mean by Sovereign Wealth Fund ?
Have you noticed every time he signs something they top it up…!
Nevermind devolution of the crown estates, the monarchy should be abolished. Until it is consigned to history, Cymru, yr Alban and lloegr cannot claim to be democratic countries!
Other than a desire to pursue naked exploitation of Welsh resources, I fail to see how the London Establishment can justify refusing to return the “Crown Estate” to Wales when they have done so for Scotland, with such obvious benefits to that country. Plaid Cymru — and indeed Gwlad, Propel, and any other party claiming to have Wales’ interests at heart — must make this an electoral issue in the next Senedd election and give this injustice maximum publicity.
That’s it – keep on begging! Who knows, they may hear your whispers eventually.
Plunder ripped off for greedy English lords. It goes back more than a thousand years.
If the grown estate owns everything under the sea for 12 miles, will a future labour government be able to charge people for taking photos of the sea or swimming in the sea and walking in the sand and sailing boats rafts and inflatables in the sea if it is devolved to the senedd to run. ££££££££. Cash cow, sorry cashless cow, card or crypto payments only.