Crown Estate embraces ‘Manchesterism’ with regional investment pledge

The Crown Estate has embraced Manchesterism by pledging to rebalance its heavily London-based property portfolio and focus two-thirds of future investment outside south-east England.

Senior executives at the £16.7bn land, seabed and assets empire – which is officially owned by King Charles “in right of the crown” but in practice is an independent commercial business tasked with earning money for the Treasury – have said they are looking to rebalance the shape of the estate across England, Northern Ireland and Wales over the next two decades to make it more inclusive.

Their plans were disclosed to MPs on the Commons public accounts committee last week. They outlined their intention to use new investment and borrowing powers granted under the Crown Estate Act 2025 to support large-scale house building, life science and tech space, and commercial development.

Helen Price, the estate’s chief financial officer, conceded that London and the south-east account for 75% of its property portfolio. It owns Regent Street and other parts of London’s West End, as well as the Windsor estate in Berkshire.

But she said: “Over the course of the next 10 to 20 years we are looking to invest across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Clearly, we will be investing in London – we have a significant portfolio there that needs redevelopment – but we will look to invest, for example, around two-thirds of our upcoming investment outside of London. Over time we are looking to rebalance the shape of our portfolio.”

The plans she announced are in addition to a £24bn partnership the Crown Estate announced earlier this month with the Australian real estate and infrastructure group Lendlease to build thousands of homes and science, innovation and commercial space in London and Birmingham.

Dan Labbad, the estate’s chief executive, said there was potential to take that partnership beyond Birmingham and to work with other partners. He said the Crown Estate had property development worth £40bn lined up but suggested it would need to work with others to raise the necessary cash for the investment.  “There is no way the Crown Estate can deliver it under traditional means. So we will be looking for more partners.”

Last month the estate reported operating profits of £1.2bn. This included £875m paid in option fees by wind farm developers to secure areas of the seabed, which have brought a boom in revenue over the past few years. More will be auctioned on Monday. The estate, whose profits are used as a benchmark to determine the amount of taxpayers’ money the King receives in the sovereign grant, owns the seabed and much of the coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, in Scotland its assets and profits have been devolved.

Photograph by Elena Zolotova/Getty Images