The Crown estate has just had alarm bells ring through, as reports allege they may come face to face with a lawsuit, by Greenpeace, because of price surges.
The news has been brought to light by The Guardian, who allege this is mainly because of an ‘exploitative monopoly’ the King’s property management company has on of the seabed.
Greenpeace is an environmental lobby and the group has also gone as far as to accuse the crown state for driving up costs in general for wind power developers for their own profits, and it comes as a result of “aggressive” auctions of the seabed rights.
For those unversed, the crown estate is the legal owner of the seabed surrounding England, Wales as well as Northern Ireland and handles all auctions of its offshore wind rights.
The publication has even gone as far as to allege that they “benefited from the huge growth in the industry, commanding hefty option fees from renewable energy developers to secure areas of the seabed to build their windfarms.”
With a £1.1bn profit in its financial year, as of March of this year, which is double of what they made two years ago.
The co-executive director at Greenpeace UK has even released a statement that calls for the Crown to manage “the seabed in the interest of the nation and the common good, not as an asset to be milked for profit and outrageous bonuses.”
“We should leave no stone unturned in looking for solutions to lower energy bills that are causing misery to millions of households,” he added.
Especially “given how crucial affordable bills and clean energy are to the government’s agenda, the chancellor should use her powers of direction to ask for an independent review of how these auctions are run. If the problem isn’t fixed before the next round, we may need to let a court decide whether or not what’s happening is lawful.”
A spokesperson for the crown estate has also spoken out since then and attempted to clear the air by saying, “Greenpeace has misunderstood the crown estate’s legal duties and leasing processes. Option fees are not fixed by the crown estate. They are set by the developers through open, competitive auctions and reflect market appetite at the time. As our net revenue is returned to the Treasury, option fees help to ensure that taxpayers benefit from the requisite value from the development of our scarce and precious seabed resource.”
“The crown estate is accelerating offshore wind in line with government policy to move forward the energy transition at pace and improve energy security.”