Welsh Labour side with Plaid over Crown Estate

Local TV

The Crown Estate is a massive collection of properties and land owned by the monarch, but managed by a semi-independent board. In 2017, the Scottish government were granted responsibility over the estate in Scotland, but that hasn’t happened in Wales. Plaid Cymru and the Welsh government want that to happen.

Transcript

00:00Management of the Crown Estate was devolved to Scotland in 2017. The latest annual report shows

00:06the Scottish Crown Estate generated £103 million for the Scottish public purse. But whilst the

00:12Crown Estate is announcing record net profits, Wales is still missing out on millions because

00:18it's not devolved here. Plaid leader Srinab Yorworth argues that it would be a great benefit

00:22to Wales to be in control of the Crown Estate and it would bring millions into the Welsh economy.

00:27First Minister Eluned Morgan tends to agree. Of course we want to be able to maximise the

00:32potential of our natural resources, creating jobs, helping to tackle the cost of living

00:37crisis and so on. That means devolving it. It's something Welsh Government has backed,

00:41it's something that's important to Welsh Government. Last week though, Labour MPs at

00:45Westminster had an opportunity to back a Plaid Cymru amendment to transfer the management of

00:50the Crown Estate's assets in Wales to the Welsh Government. Was the First Minister as frustrated

00:56as I was that Labour MPs blocked it? Let me just make it clear that our position in Government

01:02remains that the Crown Estate should be devolved and we will continue to make that case to the UK

01:10Government. We welcome the UK Government's commitment to a Welsh Commissioner but that

01:15is certainly something I see as just a first step. Plaid Cymru are concerned that not enough

01:20is being done by the Welsh Government to achieve devolved powers over the Crown Estate. But the

01:25First Minister insists official talks have taken place and will continue to fight, even against

01:29her wider party, for those powers. There's lots that we agree on, there are things that we disagree

01:35on. This is one of the areas where they disagree. I will continue to make the case. I was very

01:39pleased to see that Lord Murphy was somebody who helped us to make the case in the House of Lords

01:46on the Welsh Government's side of the argument. But I am not giving up on this cause. It's an

01:52important cause for our nation. I just want to make it absolutely clear that it's nation before party.

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