Crown Estate Scotland
Manages Crown property, seabed and natural resources in Scotland.
Crown Estate Scotland held £807.9m of ScotWind option fees at the end of 2025-26, Audit Scotland reported on 17 September 2026, after three Scottish budgets planned to draw on the money and none did.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Crown Estate Scotland holds £807.9m of ScotWind fees. Will Holyrood ever draw them?
Timeline for Crown Estate Scotland
Held £807.9m at the end of 2025-26
Is Britain Actually Broke?: Holyrood booked £1.1bn of ScotWind drawsBackground
Crown Estate Scotland manages Crown property and natural resources in Scotland, among them the seabed it leases to offshore wind developers and fish farm operators. It says it generated £270m for Scotland between 2017 and 2024. It is a separate body from the UK's Crown Estate: the Scotland Act 2016 devolved management of Crown property in Scotland.
The organisation is custodian of the option fees paid under ScotWind, the Scottish offshore wind leasing round. Audit Scotland's report of 17 September 2026 puts its holding at £807.9m at the end of 2025-26, of which £780.7m was on 12-month term deposits. Those deposits have earned £95.6m in interest.
The Scottish Government wrote a drawdown of the fees into three successive budgets and took nothing in any of them. Ministers now expect to take a further £507m by 2031, leaving Crown Estate Scotland holding about £300m. Audit Scotland cautions that relying on one-off receipts to balance yearly budgets can weaken control of spending.