The The Crown Estate has rejected allegations by Greenpeace UK that it is withholding information related to what the campaign group described as “profiteering” from a “monopoly on the UK’s seabed”.
Greenpeace said on March 2 it had filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office after requesting documents from the Crown Estate concerning “monopoly value, how the CE calculated it, and how they excluded this value from seabed leases”.
The group alleged its initial request was rejected for being “too onerous”, and that a subsequent narrower request was also refused on similar grounds. After “exhausting” the process, Greenpeace said it escalated the matter to the regulator to seek disclosure of the documents.
It added that if the requested material did not exist, “it would show Crown Estate is not properly considering whether it is overcharging developers”.
Lily-Rose Ellis, a climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said option fees amounted to a “stealth tax” on consumers and claimed the Crown Estate had “set fees way above what the market would support”.
In response, a spokesperson for the Crown Estate said: “Greenpeace misunderstands our legal duties and how offshore wind leasing works. It is wrong to suggest we prioritise short term gain or that Round 4 projects – which are not yet built – are affecting consumer bills.
“Option fees are set by developers through open, competitive auctions, not by the Crown Estate, and all revenues are returned to the Treasury for the benefit of the public.
“The Crown Estate is accountable to Parliament, manages information in line with the law, and will engage constructively with any potential review by the ICO.”
