Crown Estate’s marine portfolio rises to £4.1bn
The Crown Estate, the Queen’s property company, has seen its value jump by 7.5% to £14.4bn on the construction of offshore wind farms.
This happened despite revenues from high street properties falling as the pandemic took its toll.
Some of the world’s major energy companies made huge bids to lease seabeds in February, causing the value of the Crown Estate’s marine portfolio to rise to £4.1bn, The Times Reported.
On the other hand, the Crown Estate saw its on land property portfolio fall by £1.1bn, as the occupiers of its commercial property units found themselves unable to pay rent as a result of the pandemic.
The profits of the company which operates on behalf of the Queen fell by 22% during the 2020/21 financial year to £269.3m for this reason.
The Crown Estate gives its profits to the Treasury. The Treasury then gives a portion of this amount to the Royal Family in what is referred to as a “sovereign grant”.
The Crown Estate is anticipating a substantial increase in its income over the coming years as energy companies will begin paying in the region of £879 million a year to build wind farms.
Dan Labbad, chief executive of The Crown Estate, told The Times: “All things being equal we will see healthy income coming out of offshore wind in the upcoming years.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet. We’re still operating under lockdown, we don’t know how footfall will recover,” he said. “What the pandemic has thrown into sharp relief is that challenge and uncertainty are the new normal and there is no doubt we will face another difficult year ahead, but with the progress of the vaccination programme and our collective resilience as a society, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic,” he added.