Crown Estate (Wales) Bill [HL]

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist Excerpts

Friday 7th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

Hoffwn ddiolch i Arglwydd Wigley am ddod a’r Bil Aelod Preifat hwn i’r Tŷ ar gyfer y ddadl heddiw. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, on his Crown Estate (Wales) Bill and thank him for bringing it to the House for debate.

We on these Benches have thought long and hard about the Bill, and my noble friend Lady Vere of Norbiton debated these issues with the noble Lord in Committee on the Crown Estate Bill, which is making its way through the other place presently. I understand the arguments made by several noble Lords and I appreciate the strength of feeling, as well as the clear differences between Scotland and Wales when it comes to the Crown Estate. We support devolution and agree that local people make better decisions for their area. However, I am afraid that we have some important concerns about the Bill, given the current context of policy-making for the Crown Estate.

The Crown Estate in Wales is extensive, covering significant areas of foreshore, seabed and land, and its value has grown considerably, particularly with the rise of offshore renewable energy projects. I agree that, in time, we need to create a climate of co-operation to maximise the benefit that we can all gain from developing our national resources. The legacy of Tryweryn, which was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, still looms large; no one wishes to create another source of resentment.

While the present level of resources that could accrue to the Welsh Government is relatively small, it may well, and probably will, grow in time, particularly as the offshore floating wind industry takes off in south-west Wales. The noble Lord, Lord Wigley, was right to call for greater transparency in the Crown Estate accounts; a point further underlined by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, who gamely tried to navigate through the fog of those accounts.

When this was discussed last year, the House was considering a sea-change in the Crown Estate’s future. When that Bill passes, Parliament will have set the Crown Estate on a new path, playing an important role in the development of offshore wind. Given that context, we do not feel that devolving the Crown Estate in Wales is the right step at this time. Instituting a whole new system of governance for this part of the Crown Estate would open questions about the future of the Crown Estate, and we feel that that reassessment of the future of the estate could be a setback in the ambitions we are setting for it with the Government’s Bill. For that reason, I am afraid that we cannot support this Bill today.