Wales is sitting on a growing pile of green gold, but you wouldn’t know it.

This is because the vast profits generated by the Crown Estate’s renewable energy assets, such as offshore wind, are not flowing into Welsh communities.

They are not being invested in our crumbling public services. They are not going to our schools or our hospitals.

Nor are they being used to invest in our infrastructure, such as our antiquated, piecemeal, badly functioning and generally inadequate rail network.

No, these profits are flowing out of Wales and into the coffers of the UK Treasury and the Royal Family.

Bonanza

The Crown Estate, which has a £16bn portfolio of land and seabed across Wales, England and Northern Ireland, recently posted a record £1.1bn in profits, surging by more than £658 million during the year ending March 31.

This largesse, which is in no small part derived from substantial payments made by companies to reserve a patch of the seabed to eventually build their wind turbines on, is up from £443 million the previous year.

Though Wales is missing out on the bonanza, this does not mean there aren’t any winners.

The British monarchy gets to cream off 12% of this cash in the form of the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant. The surge in Crown Estate profits means the royal family will get a boost of more than £45 million.

This 53% increase means that their revenue will jump from £86.3 million in 2024/2025 to £132 million in 2025/2026.

According to officials, this financial boost will be used to help fund the final stages of the £369 million renovation of Buckingham Palace, as well as fund the luxurious lifestyle of the royal family. Wind turbines in Wales will power the rotors of royal helicopters.

Meanwhile, Wales’ public services are set to continue to be starved of funds by Westminster. While YesCymru does not take a view on whether Wales should continue to have a monarchy post-independence, it does question the priorities of the Westminster establishment in its allocation of funds.

Welsh control of Welsh assets means the profits can be allocated to Welsh priorities.

YesCymru has long called for control of these assets and the profits generated by them to the Senedd. This common-sense position is also supported by the vast majority of Senedd members.

Spooked

Something similar has already happened in Scotland. The Scottish Government has had control of their country’s Crown Estate assets since 2016, which Westminster conceded after the establishment got spooked following the 2014 independence referendum.

The Scottish Government is already ploughing the profits generated by their Crown Estate assets into community initiatives.

There is no reason why Wales couldn’t, and more to the point, why Wales should be prevented from doing something similar.

YesCymru believes Welsh resources should be in Welsh hands and used to benefit the Welsh people.

However, successive Westminster governments, including the newly installed Starmer-led government, have seen it fit to prevent this from happening.

If anything, the Westminster establishment is now moving to entrench its control over Wales’ resources, with the recent announcement of the partnership between the UK government-owned and controlled Great British Energy and the Crown Estate.

As part of this partnership, the UK Government is granting the Crown Estate with new borrowing powers it can use to invest in projects. Though the Welsh Government needs greater powers to invest in infrastructure, this is not on the cards.

This new enterprise will be directed by the strategic industrial policy objectives of the UK Government and not by the needs of the Welsh people.

The Welsh Government, which has long called for control of Welsh Crown Estate assets to be in the hands of the Senedd, now appears to be quietly stepping back from this position now that Labour is in charge in Westminster.

It was recently revealed that the Welsh Government has had no discussions with the UK Government about transferring control of the Crown Estate’s assets in Wales to the Senedd. These assets include ownership of a staggering 65% of the Welsh foreshore and riverbed.

Outdated

The potential for a green energy bonanza in Wales is enormous. It could help lay the foundations for a prosperous and independent nation.

Unfortunately, the Westminster establishment appears to be determined to continue with the extractive economic model that we have seen in Wales for centuries.

The only way to guarantee that this outdated model is replaced with one that is fit for the future is to take our destiny into our own hands. The future is indyWales.

Elfed Williams – YesCymru Director