Crown Estate

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The Crown Estate

logo
legal form Statutory corporation
(public corporation)
founding 1961
Seat London
management Stuart Hampson
Number of employees 444 (2018)
sales 252 600 000 GBP (2013)
Branch Real estate industry
Website www.thecrownestate.co.uk

In the United Kingdom is Crown Estate , the crown estate owned by the British Crown. Like the crown jewels , it belongs to the monarch in his capacity as head of state, but is not his private property and cannot be sold through him; nor do the proceeds from it belong to him personally. 1760 joined George III. the Crown Estate to HM Treasury and received in return an annual payment, the civil list . The Crown Estate is managed by an independent organization run by the Crown Estate Commissioners and accountable to Parliament . The portfolio was valued at £ 8.6 billion in 2013  .

history

Crown estate in England

The history of the crown lands in England begins with the Norman conquest . When William I died, the possessions he had appropriated by the right of the conqueror were largely intact. His successors granted nobles large plots of land and received soldiers and weapons in return. King Edward I extended his holdings to Wales , while James I had his own lands in Scotland , which he merged with those in England and Wales. The divestments far outweighed the acquisitions: at the time of the Stuart Restoration in 1660, the income from the Crown Estate was estimated at £ 263,598 (around £ 33.5 million today). At the end of the reign of William III. (around 1700) income fell to around £ 6,000 (around £ 830,000 today).

Before the reign of William III. all proceeds went to the monarch to meet general government expenses. A distinction was made between two types of income:

  • hereditary income, mainly from the crown lands, feudal rights (converted into hereditary consumption taxes in 1660), profits from post offices
  • temporary income derived from taxes paid to the king for a period of time or for life

After the Glorious Revolution , Parliament kept most of the temporary income under its control, but relieved the monarch of the costs of the army and navy and the burden of national debt. During the reigns of William III, Anne , George I, and George II , the monarch remained responsible for maintaining civil government and supporting the royal household. For this purpose he was allowed to dispose of the hereditary income and certain taxes. Over time, the cost of civil government exceeded the revenue from crown lands and feudal rights, causing the monarch to go into debt. When George III. ascended the throne in 1760, he ceded the income from the crown lands and responsibility for the costs of civil government to Parliament; in addition, his debt was canceled. In return he received a civil list and the income from the Duchy of Lancaster was awarded.

Although the king had retained extensive hereditary income, his income proved inadequate for his expenses as George III. used his privilege to reward his supporters with bribes and gifts. During his reign the debt rose to over £ 3 million (the equivalent of over £ 200 million today). Parliament assumed this debt and increased the amount of the civil list from time to time. Each subsequent monarch up to Elizabeth II renewed this agreement. Towards the end of the 19th century it was considered "an integral part of the constitution that would be difficult to abandon".

Crown Estate in Ireland

In 1793, George III. the hereditary income in Ireland and was given an additional civil list to serve the duties of the Irish civil government. The income included feudal taxes, land acquisitions for fortifications and, especially after 1688, also confiscations. In the early 1830s, Ballykilcline land was added after the principal tenant went mad. The sub-tenants living there were seven years behind with their rent. Therefore, in 1846 they received the offer to emigrate to North America free of charge. There is evidence that particularly desperate people were deployed in public construction projects. In 1854 a commission from the House of Lords concluded that the small estates in Ireland should be sold.

Crown Estate in Scotland

The Crown's hereditary income in Scotland, previously administered by the Barons of the Exchequer , was transferred to the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings in 1832, 1833 and 1835 . These possessions mainly comprised former ecclesiastical lands in Caithness and Orkney , old royal estates in Stirling and Edinburgh, and feudal taxes. Most of today's properties in Scotland (with the exception of the mudflats and salmon fisheries) result from investments made in the 1930s and 1960s. The largest land holding is Glenlivet Estate , an area of ​​23,000 hectares in the Cairngorms National Park .

Todays situation

Legal basis

In 1961 parliament passed the Crown Estate Act , which placed the administration of the crown property on a new legal basis. The Crown Estate has since been a corporation under public law, which is run on economic principles. The Crown Estate Commissioners are required to maintain and increase the value of the crown property and the income from it. They are accountable to parliament and publish an annual report . There is a maximum of eight commissioners appointed by the monarch who correspond to the management of a company.

The civil list agreed in 1760 was abolished on April 1, 2012, along with grants for royal travel services and the upkeep of royal residences. The 2011 Sovereign Grant Act replaced these payments with a single one. In future, the monarch will receive a share of the Crown Estate's revenues determined by HM Treasury (currently 15%).

possession

The urban portfolio includes all of Regent Street , the properties of Kensington Palace Gardens and around half of the St. James’s district in London . There are also retail stores and malls in the cities of Oxford , Exeter , Nottingham , Newcastle and Harlow . The combined commercial value is around £ 4 billion.

The rural portfolio can be divided into four categories:

  • Approximately 106,000 hectares of agricultural land across the UK with livestock and arable farming. Included therein are 26,900 hectares commons (commons) , mainly in Wales .
  • The right to fish for salmon in many of Scotland's rivers .
  • Approximately 11,000 acres of forest in Somerset and on the Glenlivet Estate.
  • The right to extract minerals from an area of ​​115,500 hectares ( sand , gravel , limestone, granite, brick clay, coal, slate and natural stone blocks).

The Windsor Estate near Windsor is approximately 6,400 hectares. It includes Windsor Great Park , Windsor Castle Home Park , extensive woodland, residential and commercial buildings, golf clubs and Ascot Racecourse .

About 55% of the mudflats in Great Britain are owned by the Crown Estate (other owners include the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster ). In Orkney and Shetland , the crown does not lay claim to the mudflats. In addition, the Crown Estate owns virtually all of the seabed up to the boundary of the twelve-mile zone . The Crown Estate plays a significant role in the development of the UK's offshore wind farms . Other areas of responsibility are wave and tidal energy, underwater cables and pipelines, and the mining of potash salt . The Krone issues licenses for around 850  aquacultures and 17,000 anchorages. There are also various smaller properties and usage rights. Likewise, the crown has the right to revert to property that previously belonged to bankrupt or dissolved companies.

literature

  • Ralph B. Pugh: The Crown Estate - an historical essay . The Crown Estate, London 1960 (English).
  • G. Percival Best: Page The Civil List and the Hereditary Revenues of the Crown . The Fortnightly Review, London 1901 (English, online [PDF; 1.1 MB ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Number of employees , accessed on February 8, 2018
  2. ↑ Financial information. (No longer available online.) Crown Estate, 2013, archived from the original on May 12, 2014 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  3. ↑ RB Pugh, pp. 3-5.
  4. ^ HM Treasury "Blue Note", Class X, 2, 1912.
  5. ↑ a b c G. P. Best, p. 1.
  6. ↑ a b G. P. Best, p. 2.
  7. ^ Paul Kelso: The royal family and the public purse. The Independent , March 6, 2000, accessed September 17, 2013 .
  8. ^ Dudley Julius Medley: A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History. Pp. 501-502.
  9. ↑ Annual Reports of Commissioners of Woods and Forests 1853 , p. 601
  10. ↑ Annual Reports of Commissioners of Woods and Forests 1855 , pp. 42-43.
  11. ↑ Annual Reports of Commissioners of Woods and Forests 1855 , p. 47.
  12. ↑ RB Pugh, p. 18.
  13. ↑ RB Pugh, p. 17.
  14. ^ A beacon of integrated land use. (No longer available online.) Crown Estate, 2013, archived from the original on December 28, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  15. ^ Sovereign Grant Act 2011. UK Statute Law Database, accessed September 17, 2013 .
  16. ^ Royal funding changes become law. BBC News , October 18, 2011, accessed September 17, 2013 .
  17. ^ Agriculture. (No longer available online.) The Crown Estate, archived from the original on January 16, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  18. ↑ Scottish salmon fishings. (No longer available online.) The Crown Estate, archived from the original on January 23, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  19. ^ Forestry. (No longer available online.) The Crown Estate, archived from the original on January 16, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  20. ^ Windsor. (No longer available online.) The Crown Estate, archived from the original on September 8, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  21. ↑ Schedule of The Crown Estate's properties rights and interests. (PDF; 458 kB) The Crown Estate, June 2011, accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).
  22. ^ Coastal. (No longer available online.) The Crown Estate, archived from the original September 7, 2013 ; accessed on September 17, 2013 (English).