Wishart calls for Crown Estate devolution to SIC
Shetland MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat Beatrice Wishart has called for the land and sea surrounding Shetland and managed by Crown Estate Scotland to be devolved to Shetland Islands Council. The move would allow the local authority to invest the money Crown Estate Scotland generates into local services.
Crown Estate Scotland is set up to manage these assets for the benefit of Scotland and its communities, in a way that is sustainable and that generates value in terms of money, social wellbeing, and enhancement of the natural environment. Revenue profit is paid to the Scottish Parliament, via the Scottish Consolidated Fund, and redistributed for public spending. From late September 2021 new legislation allowed eligible bodies to apply for transfer or delegation of management functions for Crown Estate Scotland assets including local authorities.
Ms Wishart’s letter follows her question to the First Minister at the end of last year asking for Shetland’s fair share of Crown Estate Scotland revenues.
Scottish Liberal Democrats previously criticised the Scottish Government’s handling of the 2022 Crown Estate Scotland ScotWind leasing round which imposed a £100,000 per km2 cap was placed on bids for the 7,000km of seabed. This limited the return for the Scottish Government to £700m, a fraction of the average £361,138 per km2 companies had already freely offered in deposits alone in an open market auction for sites off the coast of England and Wales.
Ms Wishart said:
“This is a practical move that the Scottish Government has competency over and could enact in the short term. Shetland councillors would then have the say over how the money might be spent.
“The sense of feeling locally is that infrastructure projects are ever increasing to the point of saturation with no benefit to the community.”
Alistair Carmichael MP said:
“Devolution of the Crown Estate was supposed to bring power and revenues back to local communities. As time has gone on much of that promise has gone unrealised because of John Swinney and the SNP’s power-grabbing approach. That is why we need further devolution of Crown Estate decision-making.
“Just months ago it emerged during the Isles Resilience Summit that a major block to further cable resilience is the fact that the Crown Estate Scotland charges significant fees to lay cables, whereas this is free in other neighbouring countries. That puts our islands at a competitive disadvantage and makes the practical case for more local control of these decisions.
“We know that the SNP like to talk about local control but their record tells the opposite story. The only way we will get the change we need from the Scottish Government is by standing up to them – including over the Crown Estate.”
The text of Ms Wishart’s letter to the First Minister can be found below:
[Dear John]
I refer to our exchange at First Minister’s Questions on 18th December 2025 and thank you for your responses to me in the chamber.
You will recall my question was about the increasing energy infrastructure in Shetland and the views of many islanders that there is increasing industrialisation on their doorstep with little benefit in return. I also asked about a share of Crown Estate Scotland funds coming to Shetland as a form of meaningful community benefit.
Our exchange touched on the irony, that is not lost on islanders, that Shetland has high levels of fuel poverty and high energy bills, while renewable energy is developed in the isles and companies paid to restrain the energy it creates. Indeed, a route to ending this situation is to build more infrastructure which is needed to connect to the national grid, a project that is currently underway and not without its challenges.
Constituents, who may have been supportive of earlier renewable projects, are concerned about the implications of the continuing developments, and indicate that the option of undergrounding cables rather than pylons across the countryside is preferable. I recognise that this might not always be an option but what is clear is that recent onshore developments with pylons and enormous wind turbines have permanently changed the local landscape.
The situation offshore also has sweeping negative impacts on the fishing sector who face spatial squeeze from traditional fishing grounds. This comes both in the form of offshore wind farms and areas around cabling to shore that exclude fishing from these areas, forcing them to go elsewhere. Fishing is vitally important to the Shetland economy with the total value of landings in Shetland of over £114 million in 2024, the second highest behind Peterhead. The wider supply chain that supports Shetland’s fishing industry, and Scotland’s economy also benefit from all the activities of Shetland’s fishing fleet.
I recognise that energy policy straddles competencies across the UK and Scottish Governments. As the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government have competency over Crown Estate Scotland, will the Scottish Government consider devolving Crown Estate Scotland to Shetland’s local authority so that local people have autonomy over future planning and revenues?
I look forward to hearing from you.
[Yours sincerely
Beatrice]
Ms Wishart’s question to the First Minister 18th December can be found here.