Crown Estate powers 'risk' to jobs - Jo Stevens

Devolving the Crown Estate to Wales would put the potential for floating offshore wind "at risk", Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens has said.

She told MPs that wind power could create 5,300 jobs and give a £1.4bn boost to the economy.

The Labour MP said handing powers over the estate to the Welsh government would "put all that at risk".

Her party's Welsh government says the Crown Estate should be devolved so money raised from windfarms and other projects can be spent in Wales.

The estate, which belongs to the monarch, owns more than £603m of land in Wales, including 65% of the seabed around the coastline.

Profits from the estate go to the Treasury in Whitehall for the UK government to spend, with a proportion going to the Royal Family.

Labour's Welsh government says it should have the same powers as the Scottish government to control the Crown Estate - a call backed by Plaid Cymru.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi asked whether the "priority should be ensuring that the Crown Estate can unlock the thousands of new well paid jobs in Wales that will come with floating offshore wind, rather than being distracted by calls to devolve the organisation in the middle of this national mission – risking the investment, jobs and lower energy bills Wales desperately need?"

Ms Stevens said she wanted "to see people in Wales benefit from those 5,300 new jobs, particularly young people who then don't have to leave Wales, where they've grown up, to earn or learn".

"I want to see that £1.4bn boost to the economy," she added.

"We are not prepared to put all that at risk – the risk of market fragmentation, of undermining or potentially destroying developer confidence in flow, and then have to watch that investment go elsewhere in the world."

In a statement, Plaid Cymru Ynys Môn MP Llinos Medi said: "Scotland's experience shows that the devolution of the Crown Estate brings investment to coastal communities.

"16 out of 22 Welsh councils now agree with this assessment – many of which are led by Labour.

"It is very worrying that the Labour secretary of state does not have confidence in the Labour Welsh government to handle powers already held by the Scottish government."

Welsh ministers have tabled a debate about the Crown Estate in the Senedd for 25 March.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: "This is a debate to discuss the importance of the role of the Crown Estate in Wales recognising our stated position that the Crown Estate should be devolved to Wales."

In February, Treasury minister James Murray said devolving the estate made "no commercial sense".