The Crown Estate is entering into a new partnership with Great British Energy to support the accelerated delivery of clean energy infrastructure, benefiting millions of homes and businesses across the country.

The partnership will bring together Great British Energy’s ability to invest and critical strategic industrial policy, with The Crown Estate’s long-established expertise in bringing forward the UK’s world leading offshore wind sector and new investment and borrowing powers recently announced by government.

Commenting on the announcement, Chief Executive of The Crown Estate Dan Labbad said:

“The Crown Estate exists to serve the national interest, including stewarding our natural resources to deliver a decarbonised, energy secure and sustainable future.

“With new powers and by partnering with government, we can drive greater investment into this future for our country, and with it support nature recovery and job creation.”

The news comes after it was announced in the King’s Speech that the government will bring forward legislation to modernise The Crown Estate’s investment powers. This includes the ability to borrow capital and invest more flexibility across its portfolio.

Dan Labbad said: 

“We look forward to working with UK Government to bring forward this essential piece of legislation as soon as possible to modernise our investment powers. These powers will allow us to have an even greater impact across our portfolio and ensure we play our part in supporting the UK’s transition to a decarbonised, energy secure future; nature recovery; regeneration and economic growth; as well as increasing the profit we return to government for the benefit of the nation’s finances.”

Crown Estate’s delivers record £1.1 billion net revenue profit for public finances in 2023-24

The Crown Estate’s latest annual report and accounts for 2023/24 show it has delivered a record £1.1 billion net revenue profit for the public finances.

The Crown Estate said that net revenue profit of £1.1 billion, £658.1million higher than last year, generated for the nation’s finances, showed the continued resilience of the portfolio, and the short-term uplift from Offshore Wind leasing. This means that more than £4 billion has been delivered to the Treasury in the past 10 years.

There are now 36 wind farms operating across its marine holdings with a combined capacity of 11.8GW, enough renewable electricity to power approximately 11 million homes. According to The Crown Estate, when combined with capacity in Scottish waters, this secures the UK’s position as a global leader in the sector.

An important moment from the year was the launch of Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5, which is set to generate up to a further 4.5GW by putting innovative floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea, bringing a wide range of supply chain opportunities for UK companies.

To support the UK’s ambition to deliver 50GW of offshore wind by the end of the decade, subject to legislation, The Crown Estate is now planning to deliver seabed space to generate a further 20 – 30GW of renewable offshore wind off the coast of England and Wales by 2030.

The year also saw progress in other marine renewable energies, including a £1.4 million investment in the Morlais tidal energy demonstration project, and the signing of an Agreement for Lease for the ‘Endurance’ project which could lead the way for one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects below the North Sea.

Click here to download The Cerown Estate’s annual report for 2023/24