List of Crown Estate assets in Wales
Dear The Crown Estate,
Could you please provide me with a list of Crown Estate property/ assets in Wales.
Secondly, could you please publish the Crown Estate profits specifically for Assets/Property in Wales.
Yours faithfully,
Arfon Jones
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Enquiries |
[1]The Crown Estate
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[2]thecrownestate.co.uk
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Dear The Crown Estate,
My request to you for information is now overdue. Please provide a date by which you intend to reply.
Yours faithfully,
Arfon Jones
Dear Arfon
Your information request (1650)
I am writing in response to your information request of 21 July 2023.
Although we had hoped to be able to respond to your requests by today, we
will need additional time to consider the balance of public interest.
Section 10(3) of the [1]Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) enables an
authority to extend the statutory 20 working day limit ‘until such time as
is reasonable in the circumstances’ in any case where it requires more
time to determine where the balance of the public interest lies
in relation to an exemption. In this case, the exemption under
consideration is section 43(2) FOIA, which relates to commercial
interests.
We hope to be able to reach a final decision on your request by 19
September 2023 and will be in touch as soon as possible with our decision.
Yours sincerely
Aimee Gasston
Transparency Manager
Aimee Gasston | Transparency Manager
Pronouns: she/her/hers
M: +44 7552 863 512 T: +44 20 7851 5046
[2]The Crown Estate
1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[3]thecrownestate.co.uk
[4]LinkedIn [5]Twitter [6]Instagram
[7][email address]
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We cannot accept liability resulting from email transmission.
From: Arfon Jones <[8][FOI #1006926 email]>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2023 3:05 PM
To: Enquiries <[9][The Crown Estate request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - List of Crown Estate assets in
Wales
You don't often get email from
[10][FOI #1006926 email]. [11]Learn why this is
important
Dear The Crown Estate,
Could you please provide me with a list of Crown Estate property/ assets
in Wales.
Secondly, could you please publish the Crown Estate profits specifically
for Assets/Property in Wales.
Yours faithfully,
Arfon Jones
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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[17]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...
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Dear The Crown Estate,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of The Crown Estate's handling of my FOI request 'List of Crown Estate assets in Wales'.
You are considering exempting this information under Section 43, I wish to request an internal review based on the fact that a list of crown estate property in Wales is not commercial and therefore the exemption does not apply. Secondly the profits of the Crown Estates are a matter of public record so therefore not subject to Section 43. In Wales the Crown Estate is a matter of public interest with a significant proportion of the population calling for it to be devolved and in those circumstance the public interest should outweigh the provisions of Section 43.
I also wish to complain of the delay to answering this relatively simple request.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Arfon Jones
Dear Arfon
Your information request (1650)
I am writing in response to your information request of 21 July 2023.
Specifically, you requested:
Could you please provide me with a list of Crown Estate property/ assets
in Wales.
Secondly, could you please publish the Crown Estate profits specifically
for Assets/Property in Wales.
Please find our response uploaded to the following SFTP location, where it
will be available to download for one month.
[1]https://sftp.thecrownestate.co.uk/
Username : FOI
Password: h74786[97P28
Yours sincerely
Aimee Gasston
Transparency Manager
Aimee Gasston | Transparency Manager
Pronouns: she/her/hers
M: +44 7552 863 512 T: +44 20 7851 5046
[2]The Crown Estate
1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[3]thecrownestate.co.uk
[4]LinkedIn [5]Twitter [6]Instagram
[7][email address]
LEGAL DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICE
The information in this message, including any attachments, is intended
solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. It may be
confidential and subject to legal professional privilege and it should not
be disclosed to or used by anyone else. If you receive this message in
error please let the sender know straight away. The Crown Estate's head
office is at 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH.
We cannot accept liability resulting from email transmission.
From: Arfon Jones <[8][FOI #1006926 email]>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2023 3:05 PM
To: Enquiries <[9][The Crown Estate request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - List of Crown Estate assets in
Wales
You don't often get email from
[10][FOI #1006926 email]. [11]Learn why this is
important
Dear The Crown Estate,
Could you please provide me with a list of Crown Estate property/ assets
in Wales.
Secondly, could you please publish the Crown Estate profits specifically
for Assets/Property in Wales.
Yours faithfully,
Arfon Jones
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[12][FOI #1006926 email]
Is [13][The Crown Estate request email] the wrong address for Freedom of
Information requests to The Crown Estate? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[14]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[15]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[16]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...
[17]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...
Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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6. https://www.instagram.com/thecrownestate/
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Arfon Jones left an annotation ()
I have a full list of the Crown Estate assets in Wales and I will happily forward to anyone interested in seeing it.
The Second part of the request is copied below:
Dear Arfon
Your information request (1650)
I am writing in response to your information request of 21 July 2023. Thank you for your patience as
we took some additional time to consider the balance of public interest. As you will see, we concluded
that the balance of public interest weighed in favour of disclosure.
Specifically, you requested the following:
Could you please provide me with a list of Crown Estate property/ assets in Wales.
Secondly, could you please publish the Crown Estate profits specifically for Assets/Property in Wales.
Please find a list of our assts attached.
With regard to your question on profits, we do not hold information on profit specifically generated
by assets in Wales. An explanation of why is included below.
Property Group
Property Value
(in GBP)
Offshore Wind and Marine Energy 793,146,428
Coastal 21,208,350
Minerals 21,841,276
Cables and Interconnectors 14,400,000
Rural agriculture and others 2,434,400
Total 853,030,454
The following information is intended to give valuable context to the figures provided so that they can
be properly understood.
Overarching context
At the heart of The Crown Estate lies a set of core duties set out by legislation – to grow the value of
the portfolio into perpetuity and return the income to the Treasury, for the benefit of the nation, its
finances and its future. The Crown Estate occupies a space between the private and public sectors,
working to create broad financial, environmental and social value both now and for the long term.
Bringing this purpose to life, we have a significant and diverse portfolio that, cared for and used
properly, provides a powerful resource to help us to respond to some of the most pressing challenges
of our time. The scale and expertise of The Crown Estate means that we play a key role in supporting
energy creation, decarbonising the economy and working towards Net Zero and taking action to
reverse the nature and biodiversity crises as part of the integrated systems and processes at a UKwide level (see our strategy on page 15 of our 2022-23 annual report). It is in this context that our
strategy makes the most of a diverse portfolio to generate wide and lasting value for our many
stakeholders, customers, communities. We do this through the direct financial value we return to the
Treasury, but also by the significant broader value we create through our activities. Our Value
Creation Framework helps us to define the value we want to deliver in the broadest sense of our
purpose – to create lasting and shared prosperity for the nation. This sets out our ambition to
broaden our horizons by generating financial, environmental and social value for the benefit of the
nation, both now and in the future.
Figures provided
The figures we have provided you with are based on those provided in our 2022-23 annual
report. Our full annual accounts can be found at p. 109 of the report, with reference to the Wales
review which highlights our work in Wales. The value that is attributed in each case is fair value in line
with IFRS 13, more information is available here. You can find further information about our valuation
process on pages 122, 138 and 140 of our latest annual report.
The Crown Estate land interests in Wales are largely made up of extensive areas of open commons
which are subject to registered grazing rights. Within these areas of ownership there are also a range
of tenancy agreements, principally of an agricultural nature. There are also extensive ownership rights
to a range of minerals. We also manage the rights to deposits of gold and silver, known as Mines
Royal. Our role is to consider applications from responsible parties for extraction and mining and
where appropriate, to grant options, licenses or leases. This process is subject to a number of
conditions, including the required planning permissions and regulatory approvals.
It is important to note we run a single set of accounts at an enterprise level and expenditure is
incurred for the benefit of the whole portfolio and cannot be attributed to individual assets. It is
therefore not possible to calculate the value of net revenue profit generated from The Crown Estate’s
assets in Wales, and we do not hold this information. Further, the figures alone will not tell the full
story. As is common in real estate, it is necessary to invest significant money up front to generate
ongoing cash flows, and once the investment is made, the costs associated with those cash flows are
lower. Offshore wind is no different – our offshore wind leasing activity, like the ‘Round 4’ projects
that are included as part of our annual accounts was years in planning and development and cost
many millions to get to the point of signing agreements. Looking forward to our next major offshore
leasing programme – Round 5, The Crown Estate has already worked with a broad range of national
stakeholders and systems operators to understand the potential and opportunity in the Celtic Sea and
is drawing on funds derived from the breadth of the portfolio to invest more upfront than ever before
to derisk the proposed projects to ensure successful outcomes. It is this coordinated approach,
coupled with our portfolio wide investment capabilities that will spearhead the development in the
nascent Floating Offshore Wind technology and leverage the economic benefit for the UK, and
specifically for the communities South Wales surrounding the Celtic Sea.
While in the past, we have produced illustrative figures for Wales, we have since shifted our focus to a
more holistic approach to assessing value and increasing our investment, and we realise that such
figures are not a fair reflection of value. The previous Wales numbers we published have not included
a cost allocation. In addition, we make decisions about locations of seabed leases using complex data
and evidence to deliver the best possible outcomes, and while some projects may be referred to as
‘Wales projects’, this may not actually reflect the administrative boundaries. In other words, they are
indicatively allocated as Wales assets as opposed to falling strictly within the territorial boundaries of
Wales. In addition, the location in the seabed and distance to coast for economic benefit are not
defined by boundaries, but by factors such as geography and geology.