Crown Estate: New Welsh adviser appointed to Royal landowner

The Wales Office said the commissioner will be responsible for “providing advice on the operation of the Crown Estate in Wales, ensuring its voice is heard”.

The Crown Estate is expected to benefit considerably from the drive to green energy with the development of significant offshore wind projects, particularly Floating Offshore Wind projects in the Celtic Sea.

The changes to the Crown Estate are being made as part of an amendment by Lord Peter Hain to the Crown Estates Bill, which is in its report stage at the moment.

The amendment has cross-party support from Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Plaid Cymru has welcomed the amendment, but said it does not go far enough.

Carmen Smith, the Plaid peer, said her party wants the Crown Estate fully devolved to Wales and for it to need to seek consent from the Welsh government before exercising any powers in Wales.

“We believe that profits generated from the Welsh Crown Estate should be invested directly in Welsh communities – not diverted to Westminster,” she said.

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said the UK government’s announcement was a “landmark step toward ensuring that Welsh prosperity is at the heart of the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower”.

“Our nation stands to benefit hugely from investment in floating offshore wind and we now have the representation we need to help seize that moment,” she said.

For Baroness Christine Humphreys, Liberal Democrat Wales spokesperson in the House of Lords, it was a “welcome step in the right direction” but “still falls short of giving Wales the same legal structures, accountability, and control of financial levers that Scotland has over the Crown Estate”.