Scotland Rules the Waves

The Crown DOES NOT own Scotland's seabed, says Treasury Committee. So why is all the revenue heading south..to the Treasury?

A report by the UK Treasury Select Committee, chaired by Michael Fallon MP, has given a real boost to land campaigners who want the Scottish parliament to control the seabed around our coasts. In evidence to the committee, the Crown Estate admitted it did not own the seabed. The committee's final report says the current system doesn't work in the public interest. I recently filed a post called Who Owns Scotland's Seabed picking up on Andy Wightman's point that future marine energy developments could generate considerable revenue. But under the current system that money goes straight to London, and all decisions about rentals etc are made by the Crown Estate whose offices are in Kensington.  In fact, there is no reason why it couldn't be administered in Scotland for the benefit of Scotland. Bizarre that the SNP in Holyrood hasn't made more of this. It's not often you get London saying Scotland should have more revenue raising powers!

The excellent local news website forargyll.com has been campaigning on this matter.  The Herald's Highland Correspondent, David Ross broke the news of the committee's report. However for some reason only the Sunday follow-up to his Saturday front page story comes up on the search engine.  

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