Wales shafted by its own MPs

Plus the damning report into the Welsh Government's record

Bore da and welcome,

This week I want to look at the decision by all Welsh Labour MPs to vote against devolving the Crown Estate to Wales. I have approached every single one of them to question them about their rationale and I think how they responded says a lot. I will then break down why the UK Labour argument is deeply misleading and ask the question, why are our own MPs not going out to bat for us?

However there has been a hell of a lot going on in Welsh politics so the first half of the newsletter will be analysing some of the issues you might have missed.

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Threats to MSs

Over the last few weeks I have spoken to several Senedd Members and their staff (from multiple parties) who have received serious threats against their safety. These have mostly come on social media and all have said there has been an increase over the last year.

I have not reported the specifics or named the MSs in question because this will likely do more harm than good. However I think it is really important to highlight that this is a real issue for people working in politics.

Senedd Members are being forced to adopt extensive security measures such as never being specific about where they will be at any given time. I visited the office of a Valleys MP recently and it was like getting into a secure bunker. Double locks, thick doors, CCTV all over the place.

To be clear, this is not an overreaction. Two MPs have been murdered in the last decade. If we want talented people to enter politics and be accessible representatives of our communities, they need to be able to operate in an environment where they are safe. We know the far right are making inroads in Cymru and a key weapon they have is intimidating people into not speaking out. We can’t allow them to succeed.

Welsh Government lip service

A few weeks ago we talked about how the Welsh Government was failing to safeguard biodiversity in Wales. This is all the more frustrating because the Welsh Government really does try and talk a good game with regard to safeguarding nature but it is falling down in delivery. Welsh wildlife has decreased on average by 20% between 1994 and 2023 and around one in six Welsh species are at risk of extinction.

Back in 2015, the Welsh Government released their Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP) and the following year the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, which aimed to reverse the decline in biodiversity. This act placed an enhanced biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty on public authorities. In the years that followed the Senedd declared a nature emergency and the Welsh Government has said it will embed its response to the climate and nature emergency in everything it does.

All great words, but words alone are irrelevant. A report by Audit Wales released last week summed this up (you can read the full report here). Here are some of the conclusions:

• The Welsh Government “has not complied with its own planning requirement”, “is not effectively monitoring public authorities’ compliance” and “is currently unable to assess the overall impact of the duty on biodiversity decline”.

• Several issues have not been addressed fully since being highlighted in a 2021 evaluation. These include uncertainty about which public authorities the duty actually covers.

• The Welsh Government is not holding public authorities to account by routinely monitoring or enforcing their compliance with the duty.

• The Welsh Government has not yet set targets for biodiversity and is currently unable to assess the overall impact of the duty on biodiversity decline.

So to sum up:

The Welsh Gov has not set targets, can’t assess the impact of their legislation, is not even monitoring public authorities let alone enforcing their duties, and hasn’t even addressed issues highlighted nearly half a decade ago.

For context on how disengaged some public bodies are with tackling biodiversity loss here are some figures:

• 49% have not complied with the requirement to both prepare and publish a biodiversity plan.

• 26% have at no point complied with the requirement to publish a biodiversity report.

Strangely some of the most damning things in this report come from the recommendations made by the Auditor General because they are SO basic it’s embarrassing. They include:

“The Welsh Gov should publish a list of public authorities covered by the duty”

- How the hell after eight years do those affected by legislation not know about it?

“The Welsh Government should lead by example in publishing a high-quality biodiversity plan and report specific to its own actions”

- Wait, so they haven’t even followed the legislation themselves?

“The Welsh Government should rigorously assess the costs of its proposed changes to environmental law and ensure there are adequate resources within (or provided to) public authorities to support effective implementation”

- This implies that the Welsh Gov hasn’t properly investigated whether public bodies are in a position to deliver what is to be demanded of them.

“The Welsh Government should require that public authorities submit their biodiversity plans and reports to it when published or revised. It should also follow up with public authorities if they have not published these plans and reports as expected”

- HOW HAS THIS NOT ALREADY HAPPENED? It beggars belief that they haven’t been checking or enforcing their own legislation.

Welsh Labour MPs have voted against devolving the Crown Estate to Wales ©House of Commons

The Crown Estate: Why Welsh Labour are doomed if they don’t swim in the clear red water

Two weeks ago every single Labour MP from Wales voted against the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales. This robs Wales of millions of pounds both now and in the future.

Though it seems complex, I believe you can make an argument that this is contrary to the views of their constituents (75% support devolution of the Crown Estate) and sums up why Labour are in such a perilous position heading into 2026. Let’s break this down.

What is the Crown Estate?

The Crown Estate is a company which is owned by the monarch and controls over £600m of Welsh land including 65% of the coast, the sea bed 12 miles out to sea, 50k acres of land and gold or silver. In 2023/24 the Crown Estate announced a record £1.1bn net revenue profit. Tidy eh?

Of the annual profits from the Crown Estate, 25% go to pay for the monarch’s official duties with the rest going to the Treasury in London. However, back in 2017 it was devolved in Scotland meaning it has generated over £103m for public finances in Scotland since then. It is not devolved to Wales.

However, during a recent vote in Westminster, Plaid Cymru tabled an amendment for the Crown Estate to be devolved in Wales. This would be massive for Wales because it would mean that we would directly profit from schemes such as floating offshore wind.

Unfortunately, every single one of the 27 Welsh Labour MPs voted against it. This begs the question, why?

What did Labour MPs say when I approached them?

I contacted all Labour MPs and asked them the following questions:

1. Why did you vote against the Crown Estate being devolved?

2. What is your rationale for Wales being denied the Crown Estate when Scotland has it?

3. Do you feel that your constituents will be better or worse off if the Crown Estate was devolved to Wales?

Of the 27, only one replied to say they wouldn’t be responding. The rest ignored the questions. Given that most of them are generally really keen to speak to me this was disappointing, but probably indicative of the fact they know this is a pretty hard to defend position.

I did however receive a comment from a UK Government spokesman who said (this is beefy but stay with me):

“The Crown Estate plays a significant role in attracting international investment into Wales to support the UK Government’s economic growth and clean energy missions.

“It will continue to do so, particularly through the £1.4 billion investment and over 5,000 jobs that we want to enable from floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea.

“Devolving The Crown Estate and introducing a new entity would risk market fragmentation, complicate existing processes, and delay further development offshore.

“Even if devolution could be done without risking the revenues The Crown Estate generates, this would not automatically lead to an increase in the funding available to the Welsh Government. This is because any revenues retained by the Welsh Government in a devolved system would likely be offset through reductions to their block grant, as is currently the case in Scotland.

“However, the Government was pleased to work with Lords Livermore and Hain to agree the amendment to the Crown Estate Bill that will see the appointment of a Commissioner with special responsibility for Wales.

“This is a landmark step toward ensuring that Welsh prosperity is at the heart of the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower.

“Our nation stands to benefit hugely from investment in floating offshore wind and we now have the representation we need to help seize that moment.

“We want to put more money in people’s pockets and reduce energy bills, and we are working with partners like the Welsh Government and the Crown Estate to make sure we deliver on those promises.”

While the sentiments and arguments within this might seem rational, when you dive beneath the flowery bollocks, it is pretty weak stuff. Let me explain…

So within that very long statement there were essentially two arguments against devolving the Crown Estate to Wales:

• It won’t actually lead to more money to Wales because it will result in a reduction to the block grant we get from Westminster “as is currently the case in Scotland”.

• It risks “market fragmentation, complicates existing processes, and a delay [to] further development offshore”.

Let’s take them in turn.

“It won’t actually lead to more money to Wales”

This is a bit misleading. It’s complicated but let’s make it as simple as we can (big thanks to Dr Ed Poole from the Wales Governance Centre for keeping me correct with figures):

• The situation in Scotland was that after the devolution of the Crown Estate, the Scottish Parliament set up a new public cooperation called “Crown Estate Scotland”.

• To offset the cash that no longer flows to the UK Treasury, the UK Government makes deductions from the Scottish block grant (they did a similar thing with the deductions to the Welsh block grant for Welsh devolved taxes like the Welsh rates of income tax and land transaction tax).

However, if you look at the Scottish figures in 2024/25 there was a £10m deduction from the block grant BUT cash generated by Crown Estate Scotland was £113.2m. This means the devolution of the Crown Estate is still a massive net benefit for Scotland. So the argument that Wales will lose as much as it gains is weak.

The arguments against devolving the Crown Estate are very weak ©House of Commons

What would it look like from a Wales perspective?

Well the amount of money would be smaller. The most recent estimate of annual profit from the Crown Estate in Wales is £35m (Wales is smaller than Scotland with a less extensive coastline).

Now in the grand scheme of things £35m isn’t much (the Welsh Gov budget is £23bn). So does it really matter? Well there is more going on here than meets the eye.

While the total amount of annual revenue is small, it has massive potential to grow. The Scottish Government gets to keep the benefit of any growth in the value of the energy or other resources generated in the seabed out to 12 miles offshore, and on the land that it leases.

This means there is a direct benefit to Scotland in developing Scottish resources. This makes the Scots much more inclined to draw advantages from Scotland’s natural environment in a way that helps generate resources for the Scottish budget. The cash generated from these activities has far outpaced the amount the UK Government deducts from the Scottish block grant as a result of the Estate being devolved in the first place.

In Wales we are about to see a massive surge in projects that could generate money for the Crown Estate like floating offshore wind and wind turbines on land. Devolving the Crown Estate would allow Wales to benefit from this money. For centuries our natural resources have been utilised for the benefit of others (coal, water etc) but devolving the Crown Estate would ensure this money is reinvested in Cymru.

The UK Government knows there is going to be a big growth in money generated from the Crown Estate in Wales, and they want to keep that.