The Crown Estate manages a highly diverse property business valued at more than £7 billion.
We pay our surplus revenue (profit) to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation every year: in 2010/11 this was £230.9 million. Over the past ten years The Crown Estate has paid nearly £2 billion to the Treasury.
Our objectives, which are laid down by Parliament under the Crown Estate Act 1961, include enhancing the value of the estate and the revenue it produces.
The responsibilities of The Crown Estate are to maintain and enhance the value of the estate and its income over the long term and to do this having regard to good management. In summary, The Crown Estate is a successful business organisation guided by our core values – commercialism, integrity and stewardship.
The Crown Estate manages a diverse property portfolio which includes office, retail and industrial premises; housing; farmland; forestry and minerals; parkland; and around half the foreshore and almost all the seabed around the UK.
The Crown Estate’s marine portfolio includes around half the UK’s foreshore, tidal river beds and estuaries and almost the entire seabed out to the 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial limit around the UK. It also includes the rights to the natural resources in the UK Continental Shelf, with the exception of oil, coal and gas.
The Crown Estate issues leases for the development of wind farm sites within the 12 nm, whilst the Energy Act 2004 gives us the right to issue leases for development beyond the territorial limit within the Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) out to 200 nm.
In 1999 The Crown Estate established its programme of Marine Stewardship to provide funding to support practical projects, relevant research, and other initiatives that improve the status and management of the marine estate.
