Scottish profits dip at Crown Estate

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 21/06/2012 10:40

The profit made by the Crown Estate in Scotland dipped last year as the organisation pumped more money into infrastructure projects to prepare the seabed for a surge in renewable energy projects.

Crown Estate Scotland posted a gross surplus of £9.6 million in 2011, down from £9.9m in 2010, after it invested £5.7m in capital projects, including £2.7m in offshore wind, wave and tidal schemes.

Some £1.4m was also pumped into the Rhu marina to increase leisure traffic on the west coast.

Revenues from the estate in Scotland rose by 4 per cent to £12.3m, with cash coming in from offshore renewable energy project developers and £2.15m from the sale of Old Mills Farm near Stirling, which was sold to the local authority to enable Stirling Council to develop a business park.

Gareth Baird, the Crown Estate’s Scottish commissioner, said: “We continue to play an important role in helping the Scottish Government achieve its target of producing the equivalent of 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewables by 2020.”

At a UK level, the profit made by the Crown Estate rose by 4 per cent to a record £240.2m, which gets passed on to the Treasury.

Revenues also rose by 4 per cent to £349.9m and the total capital value of the estate reached more than £8 billion for the first time.