Crown Estate Bill [Lords]

Catherine Fookes Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn) (PC)]

The Crown Estate owns 65% of Wales’s foreshore and riverbeds, and more than 50,000 acres of land. Recent rising demand for renewable energy projects has resulted in the value of the land sky-rocketing. In 2007, the asset value of the Crown Estate in Wales was £21.1 million, and in 2023 this reached £853 million. Correspondingly, profits generated from these assets have also increased. Net revenue profit across the Crown Estate rose from £345 million in 2020 to £1.1 billion in 2024. Profits generated from Wales’s natural resources are, however, not retained for the Welsh public purse; instead they leave Wales and are sent to the Treasury and the sovereign grant. In contrast, in Scotland the Crown Estate is devolved and profits from Scottish natural resources are transferred to the Scottish Government. In 2024 the sum was estimated to be a record £108.3 million. How can the Government justify Welsh profits being sent to the Treasury and the monarch when in Scotland they are held back and put back into the Scottish purse? The situation is worse than that, with Welsh councils having to pay lease fees simply to use the land which is owned by the Crown Estate. In 2023 the sum was nearly £300,000. With huge pressures on council budgets, how can that be justified?

In the age of coal, Wales saw a huge extraction of wealth from our communities. In 2025, Wales is now experiencing a similar process of extraction of our green wealth.

[Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)]

The reality is that Plaid Cymru Members are divided on this issue and are confused as well. Their colleagues in the other place supported provisions in this Bill to create a new commissioner with special responsibility for Wales, yet now the hon. Member is saying only devolution will do. Why does she think Plaid Cymru colleagues in the other place are wrong?

Oral Answers to Questions

Catherine Fookes Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Damien Egan (Bristol North East) (Lab)]

9. What progress she has made on increasing economic growth.

[Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)]

22. What progress she has made on increasing economic growth.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves)]

Sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people. That is why we have already taken a number of actions to begin delivering on our growth mission —the No. 1 priority of this new Labour Government—which includes a series of planning reforms to get Britain building; the establishment of a national wealth fund to bring in private sector investment; the announcement of a pensions review to unlock growth, boost investment and deliver better returns to pensioners; the launch of Skills England; and the announcement of the forthcoming White Paper on getting Britain working again. This Government are determined to boost growth and improve living standards, and, by doing so, to have the money that we need to fund our vital public services.

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to make that point. The Government are committed to delivering longer-term certainty for local authorities, as part of our wider commitment to a more empowered, accountable and sustainable local government system that will support strong public services in all our communities. The Government will set out further details on our plans for local government funding in the upcoming Budget and spending review on 30 October.

[Catherine Fookes]

This year alone, two more high street bank branches have closed in Monmouthshire, bringing the total to eight in the past two years. My constituents now find themselves struggling to access basic banking services—particularly in Caldicot. I was recently handed a petition that had been signed by more than 3,500 constituents. I am sure that the Chancellor understands the importance of high street banking not only to our constituents but to local businesses and local economic growth. What progress has she made in her work with colleagues in the Welsh Government to support high street banks and hubs in Monmouthshire and across Wales?