Two more Welsh councils back calls for devolution of Crown Estate
Anthony Lewis – Local democracy reporter
Councillors in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil have backed calls for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales.
Notices of motion were approved at full council meetings of both authorities on Wednesday, March 5.
In RCT, the agreed notice of motion read that the council believed that Wales should be treated fairly and that any profits generated by the Crown Estate, here on Welsh lands and waters, should remain in Wales, for the benefit of our residents and communities.
It also said that responsibility for the Crown Estate assets and revenue in Wales should be devolved to the Welsh Government and that the Welsh Government should accept management of the Crown Estate in Wales for the benefit of the people of Wales.
Benefit
It said: “Across Wales there is a growing campaign calling for management of the Crown Estate and its assets in Wales to be devolved to the Welsh Government.
“The campaign argues that Wales should benefit directly from the profits of renewable energy, and that this money could be used to address the poverty and inequality in communities across Wales.”
It added: “Wales should be afforded the same opportunities as Scotland, particularly at a time when the Crown Estate is announcing record net profits, and economic inequality continues in Wales.
“All local authorities across Wales are under huge financial pressures and placing the Crown Estate in the hands of Wales would be a significant step to address the years of lack of investment in our local government.
The council requested that the leader wrote to the Welsh Government outlining its support to the campaign and asked that Welsh Government continued to present the case for devolution of these responsibilities to Wales and that the leader wrote to the UK Prime Minister supporting the Welsh Government’s calls to devolve the assets and revenue of the Crown Estates in Wales to the Welsh Government as a matter of urgency.
Assets
In Merthyr Tydfil, the agreed notice of motion asked that the council supported the campaign to transfer the management and the assets of the Crown Estate in Wales to the Welsh people.
It said profit from the Crown Estate should be directed into a Welsh
sovereign wealth fund and used to benefit and support the needs of the
communities of Wales.
It requested that Merthyr Tydfil stand with the Welsh councils that had announced that they supported the campaign of placing the management of the Crown Estate and its assets in the hands of the Welsh Government.
It also asked that the leader of the council write to both the Welsh and UK
Governments and make a public statement outlining the council’s support to persuade Westminster to devolve the Crown Estate as a matter of urgency.
Profits
It said: “Investing the profits from our natural resources into a sovereign wealth fund for public benefit is widely perceived as an important step towards addressing the needs of the people of Wales.
“Wales owning and benefitting from the Crown Estate is seen as a way of
addressing poverty in Welsh communities and as a way of building agency and
resilience.
“Our local authority, as others, are under huge financial pressure and historically under-funded, and placing the Crown Estate in Welsh hands is one significant step in addressing the decades of unfairness and lack of investment in Welsh communities.
“The nation of Wales should be in total control of its own assets so that they profit and benefit our communities and country, as was done for Scotland in 2017, to transfer the Crown Estate to Wales.”
It is estimated that the estate owns 65% of Wales’ foreshore and riverbeds, and more than 50,000 acres of land.
The value of Crown Estate holdings in Wales was over £853m in 2023.
A poll taken in spring 2023 showed that 75% of Welsh voters were in favour of Wales taking control of the management and assets of the Welsh Crown Estate
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You could not make it up!!! Can you think of another country anywhere on the planet who generates money and has to give it to the country next door?
Stop the Theft.
Where is Bridgend council in this? Dragging their feet as usual
We get the usual rubbish from Westminster each year Saint David’s Day/Dydd Dewi Sant comes around, and how there was no public appetite. How wrong are they? The public appetite is ravenous, especially when informed that Wales, unlike Scotland & NI who were not only devolved the power to celebrate Saint Patrick & Saint Andrew’s Day by Whitehall , but also have far more bank holidays than Wales, is denied the devolution without rhyme or reason. Just devolve it!
What’s good enough for Scotland is surely good enough for Wales. It’s hardly complicated.
100% agreed. Asymmetric devolution just creates division. There should be a uniform rule for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: whatever is devolved one country can be devolved to another.
I keep on hearing that the Senedd is ‘power hungry’ its politicians always strive for more powers. Well as long as Wales has the weakest level of autonomy then that is always going to be the case.
Spot on.
My main understanding why Westminster is opposed to further devolution of crown estate is that the devolution process to Scottish Government has delayed the rollout of offshore wind. In some cases wind farms are seven years delayed and counting. It adds bureaucracy to the planning process. This impacts on job creation (originally planned for Aberdeen) and keeps energy bills and fossil fuel dependency higher across the UK.
I’m not saying devolution of crown estate is bad and Wales shouldn’t get it, but the lack of balance in the debate is a poor reflection. There are trade offs
My position, at bottom, is that you either do devolution or you don’t. There are arguments in support of it, which in principle and right now I broadly accept, But I acknowledge that there are also arguments against it which do appear to have have some cogency. But the UK, on a cross-party basis, has opted for devolution. Having done so, the logic as far as I’m concerned is that it should be allowed to function within its legal parameters as well as it can. If in time devolution is generally perceived to have failed in terms of serving the… Read more »
Wales needs the income from the Crown Estates. Unfortunately Welsh Labour MPs are not working on our behalf and voted against the Bill to bring back the Crown Estates to Wales. The enemy within.
Well done Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr Tydfil, lets make this unanimous across all Welsh local authorities.
If Wales wants change then Wales need to start campaigning! Why not add the following petitions to change.org and if you get enough signature’s it will be debated in UK Parliament: This petition calls for Richard Branson to have his knighthood removed due to his tax evasion behaviour and pay full back taxes on all of his wealth to foodbank charities. This petition calls for UK government to immediately remove Amazons tax breaks and cut all diplomatic ties with the money laundering states of Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and British Virgin Islands (home of Richard Branson). This petition calls… Read more »
Ynys Món have just voted to devolve Crown Estates to Cymru.