‘Historic’ Crown Estate reforms could allow more frequent UK offshore wind leasing rounds
New borrowing powers could also allow business to invest in UK’s wind power supply chain and invest in artificial intelligence to help map seabed
The Crown Estate, the seabed landlord for England & Wales, has been allowed to progress with “historic” reforms that it said could allow it to run more frequent leasing rounds for offshore wind.
For the first time in The Crown Estate’s history, it has been granted borrowing and new investment powers, the public body announced today.
This followed the Crown Estate Act passed by UK Parliament being granted Royal Assent by King Charles III, who owns the business but does not manage or make decisions about its assets.
The Crown Estate manages a £16bn ($20.7bn) portfolio of land, property and the seabed. Until now, it has had to sell assets to generate capital for reinvestment.
Getting certainty to borrow through the new Act will it said “free up its cash reserves” to further invest in areas including offshore wind.
“This legislation marks an historic moment in realising The Crown Estate’s full potential to create long-term value for the nation,” said the Crown Estate’s chief executive Dan Labbad.
“By allowing us to borrow and invest more flexibly, we are future proofing a national institution to have an even greater impact for generations to come as well as increasing how much profit it can generate for public spending.”
The financial secretary to the UK Treasury, Lord Livermore, said: “These new powers will empower the Crown Estate to invest in new growth-generating projects and deliver a greater return for the public purse”.
The Crown Estate said that the reforms could help support its ambition to “run more frequent leasing rounds” to facilitate an additional 20-30 GW of seabed leasing rights brought to market by 2030.
Greater flexibility also means The Crown Estate can “invest in AI and other technologies” to digitally map the seabed and better support nature recovery, it said, while also allowing for more investment in the UK’s wind power supply chain.
The Crown Estate has signposted the potential for an additional £400m over the short to medium term for investment in supply chain infrastructure, manufacturing, research and testing facilities, it said.