Scotland pocketed Crown Estate millions before devolution — a new report says Wales has missed its chance
Wales is unlikely to benefit from the kind of financial windfall Scotland received when it took control of its Crown Estate, according to an interim report published on Wednesday by a Welsh Government expert group.
The group, established in September 2025 by Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MS, found that Scotland secured Crown Estate devolution in 2017, before a surge in offshore wind revenues that has since delivered substantial gains north of the border.
Wales did not devolve at that point, and the group found no evidence that a similar windfall could now be replicated.
The Crown Estate currently raises an estimated just under £500m in Wales from Round 4 offshore wind option fees in 2024-25, but the Crown Estate told the group it expects that revenue to fall by around 90% after 2026-27 as those fees expire.
At the point any devolution deal could be negotiated, the group found that expected gross revenues from Crown Estate assets in Wales would likely be less than £20m a year on average.
The Welsh Local Government Association, which represents all 22 of Wales’s councils, said devolution remains the right approach despite those findings.
Flintshire County Council is among all 22 Welsh unitary authorities that have passed motions calling for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales.
Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, the WLGA Leader, said: “People in Wales deserve to see the full benefit of our natural resources.
“This report reinforces what councils have been saying for some time — there must be far greater transparency about how the Crown Estate operates in Wales and how the benefits are shared with our communities.
“Local authorities welcome the jobs, investment and opportunities linked to offshore wind and other developments felt in every part of Wales.
“While we warmly welcome the stronger focus on partnership and accountability, our long-standing position remains that the Crown Estate’s assets in Wales should be devolved so that decisions can be taken closer to the communities they affect.”
The interim report sets out four recommendations for the next Welsh Government, the UK Government, and the Crown Estate.
The first calls for Wales-specific financial and performance data to be published in the Crown Estate’s annual reports, including disaggregated revenues, costs, and investment plans.
The second calls for a formal agreement between the UK Government, the Crown Estate, the Welsh Government, and the Senedd on the annual disclosure of financial information and scrutiny arrangements.
The third recommends a new partnership between the Crown Estate and the Welsh Government to identify the enabling investment needed to secure Welsh supply chain and port benefits from the offshore wind pipeline in the Celtic Sea.
The fourth recommends that the Welsh Government produce a formal business case for devolved management of the Crown Estate in Wales before entering any negotiations with the UK Government.
The Crown Estate controls large sections of the Welsh seabed, foreshore and coastline, as well as around 50,000 acres of land, with revenue currently flowing to HM Treasury rather than being directed into Welsh communities.
In Flintshire, its holdings include the Dee Estuary and the Talacre coastline, along with land at Bagillt and Trelogan.
The group noted that the Crown Estate has provisionally allocated capital expenditure expected to run into hundreds of millions of pounds to support the Celtic Sea offshore wind pipeline, with Welsh ports and supply chains forecast to benefit at a level higher than their share of capacity in Welsh waters alone.
Publishing the report alongside a written statement on Wednesday, Huw Irranca-Davies MS said the Welsh Government recognised that devolution is “a process, not an event” and that in Scotland it had taken three parliamentary terms to deliver.
The group’s report noted that the UK Government did not engage with the expert group’s work, despite repeated requests from the group.
The UK Government has maintained its opposition to Crown Estate devolution.
In January, Treasury minister Lord Livermore told the House of Lords that the current arrangements “provide the best outcomes for Wales and the wider United Kingdom.”
The Crown Estate (Wales) Bill, introduced by Plaid Cymru peer Lord Dafydd Wigley, passed the House of Lords unopposed the same month.
Plaid Cymru MP Llinos Medi, who represents Ynys Môn, has said she will reintroduce the legislation as a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons.
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