Greenpeace has accused the Crown Estate of “monopoly profiteering” from Britain’s offshore wind boom, warning it could take the King’s property body to court unless it stops cashing in at the expense of energy bill payers.
The environmental group says the Crown Estate — which owns the entire seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland — has been “milking the nation’s natural resources for profit” by charging excessive fees to offshore wind developers bidding for seabed plots.
Those costs, Greenpeace argues, are being passed on to consumers through higher bills and to developers already struggling with spiralling costs.
It’s demanding an urgent review of the way auctions are run and warning that if changes aren’t made before the next round, it could ask the courts to intervene.
Greenpeace co-executive director Will McCallum said: “The Crown Estate should be managing the seabed in the interest of the nation and the common good, not as an asset to be milked for profit and outrageous bonuses. If this problem isn’t fixed before the next auction, we may need to let a court decide whether what’s happening is lawful.”
In 2023, the Crown Estate ditched capped auction prices in favour of open bidding.
That move saw fees for seabed leases soar and the Estate’s profits skyrocket to more than £1 billion in 2024/25 — its biggest windfall in history.
Those profits have had royal consequences. King Charles’s official income is set to jump from £86.3 million this year to £132.1 million in 2025/26, largely thanks to the Crown Estate’s offshore wind takings.
Meanwhile, the Crown Estate Commissioner’s salary has ballooned from £385,000 to £1.9 million in less than a decade.
Greenpeace says this system makes little sense for either fairness or climate goals.
It claims the pricing structure encourages developers to build more projects in Scotland, where fees are capped, only for excess power to be shut off when transmission lines to England are overloaded.
The group met Crown Estate bosses in recent weeks to demand reform.
It wants the government to step in, order an independent review and redirect “excess profits” from seabed auctions into marine recovery and cheaper energy for households.
Is Charles profiteering from clean energy? appeared first on Energy Live News.