Crown Estate Bill [HL]

Committee (1st Day)

Clause 1: Power of Crown Estate Commissioners to borrow etc

Amendment 1

1: Clause 1, page 1, line 8, at end insert— “(4B) The functions of the Crown Estate in Wales may not be exercised without the consent of the Welsh Government.”Member's explanatory statement This amendment would require that the Crown Estate must receive the consent of the Welsh Government before exercising its powers in Wales.

My Lords, I will move Amendment 1 and speak to Amendment 23, both of which are in my name. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Humphreys, for adding her name to the amendment, and of course to my noble friend Lady Smith of Llanfaes, who no doubt will wish to address Amendment 21 in her name, which I support. I also support Amendment 26 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Humphreys, which we will come to later.

At Second Reading, I outlined the case for the Crown Estate in Wales to be devolved as it is in Scotland. That is the subject of a Private Member’s Bill that I have awaiting a Second Reading debate. Although many of these amendments overlap with that fundamental approach, there are other amendments not going quite as far as full devolution proposals which, none the less, could help meet Welsh grievances regarding how it is widely seen that the Crown Estate, as currently administered, does not address Welsh needs or concerns, and, indeed, sucks valuable resources out of Wales.

This issue has boiled up further since Second Reading, with a number of local authorities in Wales that are really strapped for cash, as indeed local authorities are in England, protesting at the bill demands which the Crown Estate makes of them. Let us take as an example the position of my own local authority, Gwynedd Council. This year it is being asked to pay a staggering bill of £160,000 to the Crown Estate to permit access to and full use of its own land and facilities within its own territory. The council has to pay the Crown Estate an annual rent for access to the beach in Bangor, Barmouth and Llanaber and a staggering £144,000 a year in rent relating to the marina in Pwllheli. Access to beaches touches a raw nerve in Wales; when private citizens have tried to close a footpath access, they have triggered massive protest and have had to back down. Yet the Crown is allowed to tell us that we have to pay for use of our own land and our own coast in our own country and can charge for the use of that privilege with impunity.

My Lords, I support Amendment 21 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith. I do so as a former Labour Secretary of State for Wales who was responsible for the 2006 devolution Act. Before that, as a Welsh Minister, I, alongside the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and others, was closely involved in winning the 1997 referendum, which brought in the 1998 devolution Act to establish the Welsh Assembly, now Senedd. I have also lived in Wales for 34 years now.

Welsh Labour’s programme for government in the Senedd includes a commitment to pursue the devolution of powers needed to help reach net zero, including management of the Crown Estate in Wales. The Crown Estate is devolved in Scotland; surely there is no reason why the same powers should not be devolved to Wales, especially by a new Westminster Labour Government committed to partnership rather than confrontation with the devolved Administrations. That was the essence of the Prime Minister’s message to the special summit of the nations and regions last Friday, and in visiting Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in July within days of moving into Downing Street.

The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales recommended that the Crown Estate be devolved, and Welsh Labour is committed to working with UK Labour in government to implement the recommendations from that commission.

Taking control of the management of Crown Estate assets in Wales would allow the Welsh Government greater autonomy over the speed and direction of the development of Welsh-sited Crown Estate property. The Welsh Government would have the opportunity to better align the management of Crown assets in Wales with the needs of Welsh citizens. The management of Crown assets also generates significant revenue to the UK Exchequer. Devolution of the Crown Estate would better align revenues from Wales with the income available for the Welsh Government to deliver on their priorities for Welsh citizens.

A key consideration for the devolution of the Crown Estate is, of course, appropriate resources for the Welsh Government. In Scotland, even prior to devolution in 1999, there had already been an established Crown Estate team in Scotland. However, that is not the case in Wales, so this devolution would need to come with the appropriate resource for a new team to manage Crown Estate assets in Wales.

There would also need to be agreement on how Welsh government funding through the Treasury block grant would change as a result of a new revenue stream coming to Wales from income from Crown assets. In Scotland, the adjustment to the Scottish Government block grant is set out in their fiscal framework agreed alongside the adjustment required to account for the devolution of tax powers. Presumably there would need to be a negotiated revised fiscal framework for Wales, and I accept that this will not be done right now, given the tremendous financial pressures that my right honourable friend the Chancellor is grappling with.

The final report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales recommended that:

“The Welsh and UK Governments should establish an expert group to advise urgently on how the devolution settlement and inter-governmental engagement in relation to energy could be reformed to prepare for rapid technical innovation in energy generation and distribution, to ensure that Wales can maximise its contribution to net zero and to the local generation of renewable energy. The remit of the group should include advising on the options for the devolution of the Crown Estate, which should become the responsibility of the devolved government of Wales as it is in Scotland”.

The commission found that Welsh and UK Governments’ overlapping responsibilities on energy would work much better with stronger consultation and co-operation, with the Welsh Government as an equal partner. The commission concluded that:

“Energy generation and distribution is an area where the binary devolved or reserved nature of the devolution settlement does not sit easily with the practical realities of delivery”.

Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, told the Senedd on 17 July 2024, that

“we really welcome the opportunity to collaborate now with the UK Government on the proposals and the progression towards the devolution of the Crown Estate in Wales, which remains our aspiration. There are details that have to be worked out on that as well, but I think the positive engagement that we’ve seen so far from the UK Government on maximising the benefits of the way that the Crown Estate operates currently within Wales bodes well for the future”.

In addition to what he said, Rebecca Evans, then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, said on 10 July 2024 in the Senedd:

“The Welsh Government has been very clear that we accepted all of the recommendations of the constitutional commission’s report, and we still absolutely accept those. And there are several things for us to be getting on with in that report, such as .... our position on the Crown Estate”.