Crown Estate uses new powers to invest in UK offshore wind supply chain
Crown Estate's backing comes as UK supply chain waits to see what else is in the government's industrial strategy
The Crown Estate, seabed landlord for England & Wales, has exercised new powers to put in place a £400m ($542m) capital investment plan for the UK's offshore wind supply chain.
The investments will support construction of new infrastructure, including ports, supply chain manufacturing, and research and testing facilities, to enable the deployment of offshore wind across the UK.
The measures were outlined by Crown Estate’s managing director of marine, Gus Jaspert, in the opening session of the Global Offshore Wind conference in London.
In a statement, Crown Estate described insufficient supply chain capacity as a key constraint to further offshore wind deployment in the UK.
The first is a new £350m Supply Chain Investment Programme established to invest in the construction of new port and supply chain infrastructure to support accelerated delivery of UK offshore wind projects.
Additionally, The Crown Estate’s £50m Supply Chain Accelerator is already supporting early-stage project development and is currently running its second funding round.
The Crown Estate stressed that it will work in coordination with organisations from the private and public sector, including Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund.
“We will not unlock the full economic, social and environmental benefits of offshore wind without collaboration and investment into the UK supply chain,” Brinded stated.
The announcement comes two months after GB Energy, a new state-owned company, earmarked £300m in supply chain funding in industrial regions. matched by another £300m that the offshore wind industry has allocated to match government funding.
The UK government is expected to announce further measures to support the local supply chain later this month, as part of its long-awaited industrial growth strategy.
Delivery of funding for that strategy will be handled through Industry body the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP).
“We welcome The Crown Estate’s continued commitment to the offshore wind supply chain,” said OWGP chair Tim Pick.
“An aligned and collaborative approach with industry and other public investors will truly help the sector deliver on the ambitions of the Industrial Growth Plan – growing our domestic supply chain, accelerating and de-risking delivery of projects, and boosting technology leadership.”
The Crown Estate Act 2025 granted Royal Assent in March conferred borrowing and new investment powers.
The Crown Estate already manages a £16bn portfolio of land, property and the seabed but, prior to the new law, had to fund investment with the sale of assets.
The Crown Estate has said that the reforms could help support its ambition to “run more frequent leasing rounds” to facilitate an additional 20-30GW of seabed leasing rights brought to market by 2030.
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