The Court of Session has today published the Opinion in the case of the Crown Estate Commissioners seeking declarator that they have authority to impose charges for the rent of the seabed. This was opposed by those who claimed that the Royal Charter of the Burgh of Rothesay provided that the inhabitants of the town already enjoyed this privilege.
The Court agreed with the Crown Estate Commissioners.
Following the confirmation by the Treasury Committee that the Crown Estate Commissioners (CEC) do not own the seabed around Scotland (Scotland has always owned the seabed though it is “administered” and “managed” by the CEC), a key question arises - how much is it worth? If the Scottish Parliament were to abolish the Crown rights in the seabed what kind of revenues might be anticipated? What might a Scottish marine renewables sovereign fund look like?
I don’t have access to the rental agreements signed by the CEC but I found a report in the Times in 2008 in which industry insiders claim that the sums could be around £100 million per year - and that’s for offshore wind alone. It does not include wave, tidal, carbon storage or subsea cabling. The Scottish share of wind is probably only 20% or so according to this map from CEC but including the other developments, we are talking about hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Daily Mail claimed earlier this year that plans for gas storage under the North Sea are being delayed because of “excessive demands” from the CEC.
I have been contacted by an SNP MSP who describes my criticism of the Scottish Government as “not fair” and that the CEC is “work in progress”. I don’t buy this. Back in March 2008, the SNP’s Westminster Energy spokesperson Mike Weir was complaining that the fees generated by the CEC represented a “clear power grab” which the “SNP will oppose tooth and nail”
But that was 2 years ago and since then, Alex Salmond and his government had been cosying up to the CEC when they could, instead, have abolished these Crown rights and stand now to set the terms of this marine bonanza that will make Scotland “the Saudia Arabia” of renewables. What’s more, all the evidence and facts were set out in December 2006 when the Crown Estate Review Working Group published its authoritative report.
I don’t know much about Saudia Arabia but I bet all the revenues from their oil deposits don’t head off to Tel Aviv or Cairo!
Good coverage of Treasury Committee report in the Herald on Saturday.
Inside feature (please note that paragraphs 4 and 5 should NOT have quotation marks)
5 April Follow up piece on Herald website (Dated 4 April)
The Treasury Select Committee today published the report of its inquiry into the management of the Crown Estate. This represents an important stage in the ongoing debate about the future of the Crown Estate Commission and I have prepared a briefing here.
All the written and oral evidence can be seen here.
Yesterday, at First Minister’s questions in the Scottish Parliament, Alex Salmond again argued that Scotland’s seabed should be controlled in Scotland
“Yes, we have an enormous renewable energy resource off the shores of Scotland and this Government is hugely in advance in exploiting that compared with anything that is happening south of the border, but the real opportunity for Scotland is to control that resource and our other energy resources in order to get the sort of prosperity and long-term growth that we are so clearly being denied by the dead hand of Westminster.” (Official Report 25 March 2010 Col 25096)
So why doesn’t he do anything about it?
Forgive me for continuing this thread on Scotland’s seabed but I’ve just caught sight of an interview on 16th March with Alex Salmond about Scotland’s marine renewables potential. Now I think that the progress made with marine renewables is very exciting but we’re not going to maximise the benefits of this industry if we don’t control our own seabed.
Alex Salmond claims that these announcements mean that “Scotland rules the waves” (0:26 min). He reminds us that his “claim that the Pentland Firth is the Saudi Arabia of tidal power is about to come to fruition” (2:47). And he goes on at some length about the benefits to local communities in the Highlands and Islands (2:54). This is all fine and dandy but why does the SNP Government not follow through the logic of its position and ensure that local communities around Scotland’s coasts control the seabed and foreshore and thus have a real stake in the development of this important industry? Why is such a valuable part of Scotland’s public land still under the control of a London based property company - the Crown Estate Commission?In the recent Independence White Paper, the Scottish Government point out that the governance of marine resources remains unsatisfactory. “Despite recent agreements the underlying fragmented nature of responsibilities does pose a risk to the successful management of marine issues, for example supporting the emerging wind and tidal energy industry in Scottish waters.” (White Paper para 5.9)In paragraph 5.15 the SNP government admits that, despite some minor changes in the relationship between the CEC and the Scottish parliament, “the more significant issue – that revenues collected from Scottish coastal businesses by the Crown Estate bring very little visible benefit to Scotland – would remain.”But Scotland’s seabed is public land under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament - it could do something about these issues tomorrow if it wished. Why won’t it?To add to my frustration with this whole story, the Scottish Government has today published a consultation paper on the geographic areas to be included in the next round of seabed leases that will qualify for the Saltire Prize. In it, it repeats the fiction that “The Crown Estate owns virtually the entire UK seabed” (pg 2). As my post of March 18th makes clear IT DOES NOT! Why is the Government continuing to parade this fiction?