Scotland
UK
Ireland
London
The Crown Estate has announced today a gross surplus for its Scottish estates of £15.5m for the year ending 31 March 2009, compared to £11.4m in the previous year. This represents 6.4% of The Crown Estate's total gross surplus of £243.2m for the UK as a whole.
The surplus goes towards public spending for the benefit of all UK taxpayers.
Revenue in Scotland was £17.6m, compared to £13.9m for the previous year. The property value of The Crown Estate in Scotland fell by 4.0% over the year to £227.5m.
Ian Grant, Chairman and Scottish Commissioner of The Crown Estate, said: "We continue to invest in the long term development of The Crown Estate in Scotland. Last year we invested £5.4m in our marine estate in Scotland and a further £2m in our rural estate. This included improvements to ports and marinas, continuing support for the aquaculture industry and the development of small scale renewable energy programmes in rural areas.
"Preparing for the development of offshore renewable energy continues to be at the heart of our work in Scotland. We have worked closely with the Scottish Government to ensure that Scotland is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by offshore wind, wave and tidal power."
The success of The Crown Estate's work over the last year has depended on a range of partnerships. The Crown Estate Scottish Liaison Group met three times during 2008/09 providing a forum for The Crown Estate to co-operate with the 22 stakeholder organisations that are members.
The Crown Estate has also strengthened its partnerships with local authorities and enterprise agencies on projects ranging from energy from waste projects to improving facilities for Scotland's marine leisure industry.
"We continue to prioritise long term investment," added Ian Grant. "We have a shared interest with the communities and customers we work with to ensure their future prosperity. This is true of our work on marine renewable energy, aquaculture and is reflected in our support for agriculture and forestry. We recognise too that our stewardship of often fragile marine and rural environments places a duty on us the safeguard these assets for future generations."
(GK/JM)
