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.
Good news in East Ayrshire - Council is to appoint a paralegal to investigate the common good in Cumnock, Darvel, Gaslton, Kilmarnock, Newmilns & Greenholm and Stewarton. Further details 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?
There’s a conference in Inverness today about the community right to buy. I should probably be there but I can’t afford to take a day off work, the train ticket is over £40 and I’m kinda skint right now. The meeting is also focussed on the Highlands and Islands Enterprise area. Nothing wrong with that but I think it’s high time we made more effort to inspire land reform beyond the north and west.
The Minister, Roseanna Cunningham, spoke at the gathering and claimed that “the legislation has been successful so far.” I’m not so sure. Whilst five communities have acquired land under the Act, many more have been frustrated at the bureaucracy and complexity of the legislation and the incompetence with which Ministers have handed the whole process. For example, 60% of successful applications do not even meet the statutory requirements of a competent application and yet have been accepted. As a consequence, four registrations have been overturned on appeal by the landowner - a direct result of administrative incompetence. Decision making has been inconsistent. One application was refused on grounds that another applicant was later informed was acceptable. One applicant missed the chance to buy because Ministers took 66 days to decide that a grid reference used to locate the centre of land shaded clearly on the map was deemed to be a reference only to that spot … ??!! This application was refused but a subsequent application was accepted despite breaking almost every rule. To cap it all, communities have to go through the whole ridiculous process every five years. See my 2006 Two Year Review for more details
The Scottish Government’s press release today is headed “Land reform success exceeds expectations“. What expectations? It is also riddled with errors. For example, it claims that the legislation was passed in 2004 (it was passed in 2003). It claims that community bodies have submitted “over 112 applications to purchase land and almost 80 applications have been approved.” This is misleading - these applications are to register an interest in land, not to purchase it. It states that the first communities to extend their interest “will do so in late 2009.” It is 23 March 2010 today.
There’s only been five successful acquisitions with another three in process. More (seven) have failed to acquire land within the timescales set. Hard to see how all of this exceeds expectations.
The Act is such a complex, legalistic piece of legislation that it provides numerous opportunities for nit-picking and fine legal arguments. This keeps bureaucrats and lawyers in business but does nothing to empower communities.
Ministers have refused to review the legislation despite Roseanna Cunningham herself demanding that this be done every four years when she spoke in the final debate on 23 January 2003.
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?In an article about marine energey in the Sunday Times business section titled “Alex Salmond’s bid to rule the waves”, Jane Bradley writes the following.
According to Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, this is the first step in a plan that could turn Scotland into the “Saudi Arabia of marine energy”. Salmond, who is running the scheme in league with the Crown Estate, which owns the first 12 miles of seabed round the British coast, is determined to take bold steps to achieve his targets.
Wrong. The Crown Estate owns nothing (see March 18th) - it is a bundle of property rights. We, the Scottish public own the seabed and Alex Salmond is giving it away….