Isra-Mart srl: Offshore wind farms buoy Crown Estate's record earnings

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The Crown Estate (CE) recorded an unprecedented £230.9m net profit last year, buoyed in part by the marine estate's growing involvement in the nascent offshore wind market.

The CE yesterday confirmed profits for the financial year ending March 2011 increased 9.6 per cent on the previous year, marking a record return for the business that pays its profit to the Treasury.

The boon was mainly attributed to a growth in the urban estate's portfolio, but also a 32 per cent uplift in the value of the marine estate, through which the CE leases land to offshore wind farms, wave and tidal array developers.

The CE said its most recent offshore wind farm development programme, Round 3, remains on track, while construction of the Round 1 offshore wind programme is almost complete and operational, and more than half the projects in Round 2 are either under construction or operational.

The CE has already started drawing up plans to award leases for Round 4 offshore wind farms in 2016 or 2017.

Despite a decline in the demand for dredged aggregates, dragged down by the declining UK construction industry, income from renewable energy projects rose by 35 per cent to £3.4m.

Sir Stuart Hampson, chairman of the CE, attributed the good results to the organisation's view on long-term investments.

"The Crown Estate is a wholly apolitical organisation, and we're accustomed to working with governments of all complexions and playing our part in achieving the national objectives they set," he said.

"Nowhere is this more evident than in the offshore renewables sector, where we believe the scale of the Crown Estate's resources as a UK-wide body has been crucial in moving forward the ambitions of the government and the devolved administrations."

Chancellor George Osborne has proposed replacing the Civil List system, which pays the Queen, with a Sovereign Grant based on 15 per cent of the CE's profit from two years previously.