Westminster is entrenching its control over Wales’ green energy assets
Elfed Williams – YesCymru Director
Wales is sitting on a growing pile of green gold, but you wouldn’t know it.
This is because the vast profits generated by the Crown Estate’s renewable energy assets, such as offshore wind, are not flowing into Welsh communities.
They are not being invested in our crumbling public services. They are not going to our schools or our hospitals.
Nor are they being used to invest in our infrastructure, such as our antiquated, piecemeal, badly functioning and generally inadequate rail network.
No, these profits are flowing out of Wales and into the coffers of the UK Treasury and the Royal Family.
Bonanza
The Crown Estate, which has a £16bn portfolio of land and seabed across Wales, England and Northern Ireland, recently posted a record £1.1bn in profits, surging by more than £658 million during the year ending March 31.
This largesse, which is in no small part derived from substantial payments made by companies to reserve a patch of the seabed to eventually build their wind turbines on, is up from £443 million the previous year.
Though Wales is missing out on the bonanza, this does not mean there aren’t any winners.
The British monarchy gets to cream off 12% of this cash in the form of the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant. The surge in Crown Estate profits means the royal family will get a boost of more than £45 million.
This 53% increase means that their revenue will jump from £86.3 million in 2024/2025 to £132 million in 2025/2026.
According to officials, this financial boost will be used to help fund the final stages of the £369 million renovation of Buckingham Palace, as well as fund the luxurious lifestyle of the royal family. Wind turbines in Wales will power the rotors of royal helicopters.
Meanwhile, Wales’ public services are set to continue to be starved of funds by Westminster. While YesCymru does not take a view on whether Wales should continue to have a monarchy post-independence, it does question the priorities of the Westminster establishment in its allocation of funds.
Welsh control of Welsh assets means the profits can be allocated to Welsh priorities.
YesCymru has long called for control of these assets and the profits generated by them to the Senedd. This common-sense position is also supported by the vast majority of Senedd members.
Spooked
Something similar has already happened in Scotland. The Scottish Government has had control of their country’s Crown Estate assets since 2016, which Westminster conceded after the establishment got spooked following the 2014 independence referendum.
The Scottish Government is already ploughing the profits generated by their Crown Estate assets into community initiatives.
There is no reason why Wales couldn’t, and more to the point, why Wales should be prevented from doing something similar.
YesCymru believes Welsh resources should be in Welsh hands and used to benefit the Welsh people.
However, successive Westminster governments, including the newly installed Starmer-led government, have seen it fit to prevent this from happening.
If anything, the Westminster establishment is now moving to entrench its control over Wales’ resources, with the recent announcement of the partnership between the UK government-owned and controlled Great British Energy and the Crown Estate.
As part of this partnership, the UK Government is granting the Crown Estate with new borrowing powers it can use to invest in projects. Though the Welsh Government needs greater powers to invest in infrastructure, this is not on the cards.
This new enterprise will be directed by the strategic industrial policy objectives of the UK Government and not by the needs of the Welsh people.
The Welsh Government, which has long called for control of Welsh Crown Estate assets to be in the hands of the Senedd, now appears to be quietly stepping back from this position now that Labour is in charge in Westminster.
It was recently revealed that the Welsh Government has had no discussions with the UK Government about transferring control of the Crown Estate’s assets in Wales to the Senedd. These assets include ownership of a staggering 65% of the Welsh foreshore and riverbed.
Outdated
The potential for a green energy bonanza in Wales is enormous. It could help lay the foundations for a prosperous and independent nation.
Unfortunately, the Westminster establishment appears to be determined to continue with the extractive economic model that we have seen in Wales for centuries.
The only way to guarantee that this outdated model is replaced with one that is fit for the future is to take our destiny into our own hands. The future is indyWales.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
The Crown Estate is devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland but not in Wales. The England lot are intent on bleeding Wales dry.
The Crown esate is not ‘the English lot’ – it’s in the title. It’s the Monarchy. If one wishes to argue for the abolition of the Monarchy then do so, I am sure many of ‘the English lot’ will agree.
Take take take loot loot loot. That sums up their history. Stolen land, stolen artefacts, stolen about everything. If they had to give back everything they have stolen they would not have a pot to p**s in. Yet the stealing goes on.
Is that right that wind turbines in Wales will power royal helicopters? It would indeed be fitting if in line with his previous environmental pronouncements, King Charles had switched to electric helicopters.
Contra-rotating blades…you heard it here first…
A battery powered helicopter with contra-rotating blades worked for the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.
Still need Welsh energy to charge the batteries.
Time is now for Welsh Independence and an end to the royal family.
Charles and his wife need 1 house, their kids have all grown up (physically if not emotionally) and can fund themselves.
They can move into Windsor castle and we can use the sale of Buck House, Balmoral, Sandringham, etc to fund the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. then they can disappear.
If King Charles and the Westminster government had a shred of decency and compassion they would be handing back the Crown Estates to the people of Wales. Shame on them and the Labour MPs from Wales for failing to push this forward.
Extractive economy – on all fronts, not just in green energy.
I see a parallel here in the ‘Royal Attitude’ an absence of a sense of responsibility… For example, HMS Bronington, his first command in the Andrew lies half submerged and in need of private/charitable money to restore, for her own sake, this iconic last of the ‘wooden walls’… Then substitute Cymru for the ship, he has no regard or affection for either but Cymru is a ‘gold mine’ and the world knows it yet the ‘funny yellow metal’ still eludes us, why is that…? Conclusion: a poor caretaker… Come 2026 it should be Plaid who take ‘Berlin’… (the wall comes… Read more »
We can complain all we want but it looks like it will do nothing to change the situation. All that can be done is to make the Welsh public aware of the injustice and why it is one of the reasons Cymru should now be independent. Cymru has so much going for it and has the potential to become a very successful and prosperous country. The sooner everyone living in Cymru realises that the quicker we can all set out on the road to achieving it.
The Conservative party always opposed devolution to Wales and Scotland, and while the Lib Dems did generally back the idea, in the 1990s they weren’t sufficiently significant politically (and, despite their successes in last month’s Westminster election, they still aren’t) for their view to count for very much. The reality is that devolution only came about because for a brief while the ‘New’ Labour government which was voted into office in 1997 was nudged by the passionate advocacy of senior Labour politicians in Wales and Scotland – Donald Dewar, Rhodri Morgan, Ron Davies, &c. – to embrace the idea. But… Read more »
R T Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives (oxymoron , i Know) is a staunch unioinist, Welsh Tories would never vote for welsh independence
The monarchy must be abolished!
It can be by ballot or bullet, whichever is sooner, is fine with me!
The implication of violence I strongly object to, even more so at this time.
Agree on the abolition of the monarchy (in Wales, anyway -up to the English if they want to keep it there). Please don’t imply violence though. Wales is better than that.
Another source of funds are the £22.5bn of Wales Local Govt Pension Funds being eyed up by Reeves to fund her infrastructure growth plans for England.
They could be investing in projects that a Wales Crown Estate could be putting forward.
As they are Defined Benefit schemes the current or future pensioners do not get any extra payments from any surplus.
These could be used for the projects
Let’s place this into context. 1) The Crown Estate is not within UK government control. 2) NET profit is paid from the Crown Estate to the UK Consolidated Fund (UK Treasury). 3) The revenues do NOT go the Monarchy. Now consider the UK Consolidated Fund. That’s what pays the money to Wales. The Barnett Formula is used to work out how much money gets paid to Wales The Barnett Formula means the Welsh government gets £1.20 for public services for very £1 in England. That’s a huge percentage amount. Point? Crown Estates earn money for the UK Treasury but not… Read more »
It goes to the Treasury and the money is allocated to the Crown amkngst other things. But how much of it profits Wales? Can you let us know?
This is all true, and they are points missing from the original article. When the Crown Estate was devolved to Scotland the block grant was adjusted to reflect the increase in revenue to SG and the decrease in revenue to the UK Treasury. I.e., a portion of the revenues are already being received in Wales, as they were in Scotland. Changing where the revenues are received could result in more or less or the same revenue overall, so the main arguement of the article about revenue is flawed. Similarly, whilst the Crown Estate no longer pays directly for the Monarchy,… Read more »
The Barnett fomula is not fit for purpose, even Barnett said it was a temporary measure until a fairer allocation was worked out.
As it stands, all VAT raised in Wales goes straight to the treasury and is not counted in Barnett. That’s right, 20% of everything spent in Wales goes to westminster, and is not counted as part of the Barnett.
The same applies to Crown estate, it is not extracted from Wales and doesnt count for Barnett.
We are being fleeced, and most Welsh people dont even realise it.
The 2024 General Election results show that 83.5% of House of Commons are England Constituency MPs. The parliamentary Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem parties have 84.4%, 95.9% and 90.3% English MPs. These absolutely massive majorities guarantee that the Westminster Government is, and always will be, essentially an English Government. Its members have a profound colonialist attitude towards Wales that ensures that Wales is always bottom of the UK’s pecking order. Widespread discrimination against Wales is, therefore, inevitable of which the Crown Estate issue is merely one example.
Think there’s nothing that’s been said here which we don’t already know – Plaid has said much of this already – but getting people to agree with this sentiment has never been the problem. Everyone loves the positive affirmations of their beliefs. But does this really move anything forward? The answer is no. We’ll still be in the same place in five years because we’re propping up people who feed us with good sentiments and little effective plan for moving forward. But least we can all talk about stolen lands, ill gotten profits, a conquest 800 years ago and what… Read more »
Time to bring on the First Republic of Wales and kick that disgusting family of shameless grifters out of our business forever.