The UK Government has said that a new Crown Estate Act will ‘help to drive economic growth further and faster, deliver a greater financial return for the taxpayer and unlock vital funding for public services.’

The Crown Estate has been granted borrowing and new investment powers to future proof the organisation, including supporting offshore wind leasing. The passing of the Crown Estate Act 2025 will support the ambition set out in the recent Future of Offshore Wind report to run more frequent leasing rounds to facilitate an additional 20-30GW of seabed leasing rights brought to market by 2030, renews reported.

The Government said that ‘under the Act, The Crown Estate will benefit from greater flexibility over how and where it invests, freeing up more opportunities for investment in areas of national importance like offshore energy development and associated supply chain infrastructure.’

The package of measures will unlock significant investment in public infrastructure and new technologies that can help map the seabed, accelerate marine investments that will bring to market more offshore wind leasing by 2030. It will also leverage its land and property assets for urban regeneration.

It follows a major partnership between The Crown Estate and Great British Energy announced last year which could leverage up to £60 billion of private investment.

Dan Labbad, Chief Executive of The Crown Estate, said: “This legislation marks an historic moment in realising The Crown Estate’s full potential to create long-term value for the nation.

“By allowing us to borrow and invest more flexibly, we are future proofing a national institution to have an even greater impact for generations to come as well as increasing how much profit it can generate for public spending.

“We take this responsibility seriously and look forward to working with Government and others over the coming months and years to make this a reality.”

The new powers include:

• The power to borrow: Getting certainty to borrow through the new Act will free up its cash reserves to further invest, for example in accelerating the development of offshore wind; science and innovation; and regenerative agriculture.
• Greater flexibility in how and where it invests: It has signposted an additional £400m over the short to medium term for investment in supply chain infrastructure, manufacturing, research and testing facilities. This includes a further £15 million to be made available this year through the Supply Chain Accelerator Fund to de-risk the early-stage development of UK supply chain projects servicing the offshore wind sector.

Before Royal Assent for the new Act was confirmed, amendments to the Bill were rejected which proposed a requirement for marine spatial planning coordination with the MMO, a mandated community benefit of 5% of profits from offshore projects and devolution of assets to the Welsh Government.