Crown Estate hits £1.2 billion profit driven by offshore wind
The Crown Estate just hit £1.2 billion in profit for 2025-2026, its third year in a row breaking the billion mark.
Most of this boost came from offshore wind, with developers paying £875 million to secure seabed leases through auctions started in 2022.
While earnings from wind dipped by £198 million as two offshore windfarms began construction, allowing the developers to pay a lower rate, once those windfarms begin generating electricity the developers will be required to pay the Crown Estate 2% of the revenue they collect from energy bills.
Crown Estate returns £487m to Treasury
In the last financial year (2025-26), the Crown Estate handed back £487 million to the Treasury; King Charles's royal duties got a bigger slice at £132.1 million, up from £86.3 million in the previous financial year (2024-25).
CEO Dan Labbad saw his pay rise nearly 20% to £2.33 million, more than four times what he earned when he started in 2019.
Labbad says profits should stabilize as more windfarm developers move forward with construction and credits the estate's long-term push for UK offshore wind as a win for taxpayers.