Crown Estate (Wales) Bill [HL]

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Friday 7th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, on introducing this Bill and for the many decades that he has eloquently, and with no less a degree of commitment, sought to represent the people of Wales and serve their best interests. It is also a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Murphy. I know this as someone who was educated in Wales and was, for the past three years, chair of Haberdashers’ Monmouth School and a long-standing president of Welsh Rowing.

I should also declare my interest in Wales as set out in the register. I chair Amey, which has worked hard to ensure the successful electrification of the Core Valley Lines radiating out of Cardiff. I also chair Acteon, which is a subsea service company that has an active global interest in offshore wind, providing seabed-to-surface sustainable energy solutions for offshore wind.

My view is that, to maximise economic growth in Wales and generate employment in sustainable energy technologies, now would not be the best time to pursue this Bill. I emphasise “at this time”, because I would favour the Government entering into discussions with Wales in due course. I hope they will make it clear that any discussions on devolving the Crown Estate to Wales must not conflict with their priority in the five-year plan to increase the proportion of the UK’s energy generated from renewables to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2030.

Investors look for stability. Growth is generated and new jobs are created only if there are two foundations in place: a stable policy framework and strong financial support with backing from government. The establishment of Great British Energy is under way and understood by investors. The publicly owned clean power company will work with the private sector to encourage greater investment in renewable energy, including offshore wind, which is so important to Wales. Similarly, the Crown Estate Bill underlines the Government’s commitment to support the development of offshore wind projects in seabed areas held by the Crown Estate. Time is of the essence to meet these targets and we need to increase grid capacity now to achieve the rapid expansion of offshore wind energy.

One major hurdle to these ambitious goals would be a minimum of three years of uncertainty; this would happen if we passed the Bill in this Session, for that is how long it took in Scotland. As we know, the process for Scotland was very complex and destabilising for investors. There were significant hurdles to overcome and they all took time: the legal and constitutional challenges; clarifying which functions could be devolved; and ensuring compliance with existing laws, which proved intricate. Assessing how revenues from Crown Estate assets would be managed and distributed in Scotland took a long time. Determining the value of Crown Estate assets and how they would be managed after the transfer was a significant challenge. Engaging with all the stakeholders, including local communities, businesses and environmental groups, was crucial and challenging, as differing interests had to be balanced in the management of assets. The Scottish Government then had to build the capacity to manage the new functions effectively, which involved training new staff and developing new management frameworks. Finally, but self-evident from the debate, the transfer was politically sensitive, with differing views among the political parties on how Crown Estate functions should be managed and by whom. All of that added to the time involved and the complexity of the process.

Further, there is a significant difference in this Bill. It is the wish of the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, that the legislation be subject to scrutiny by both Houses of Parliament and the Senedd. This additional level of approval will take yet more time, and the Delegated Powers Committee brought to our attention in its report that it did not consider scrutiny of the power by the Senedd appropriate.

It is not that I do not favour entering into discussions in due course, but it should not be at a time when it is so important to encourage investors to come into Wales. All this means that there would be less clarity for those investors today. More troublingly, even if the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, put into the Act that it would come into effect three years after it passed, there would be investor uncertainty, which would be damaging. These years of uncertainty would be an inevitable consequence of a move to devolve the Welsh Crown Estate and would need to be factored into investors’ assessments. I fear that they would steer investors away from Welsh waters to other parts of the UK, to the detriment of research and development jobs in Wales, employment opportunities in Wales, which I passionately believe in, and the Welsh ecosystem of business associated with developing wind farms offshore, particularly now when there is so much attention on offshore floating wind opportunities, on which decisions are to be made over the next three years.

I am not arguing that the policy, long advocated by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and echoed today by the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, should not be considered in future. It should be, but not at this critical time for the net-zero policy of this Government. I fully understand the political will to devolve the Crown Estate to Wales, but the arguments are currently outweighed by the potential risks to the UK energy market and investor confidence in Wales. Let us grasp the very real opportunities together and work for the success of Wales in the offshore wind energy market. I have never been more optimistic about the potential for Wales. Sadly, if it is introduced now, I see this Bill only damaging that prospect. Its time will come, but not now.