Scottish Crown Estate draft strategic management plan: consultation

Ministerial Foreword

This consultation seeks views on the first Strategic Management Plan for the Scottish Crown Estate and marks a further milestone in our wider programme of work to secure devolution and reform the management of the Scottish Crown Estate. The assets include rural estates, just under half of Scotland's foreshore and leasing rights for activities on the seabed out to 200 nautical miles.

The vision, objectives, priorities and policies outlined in the Plan build on the important work to date in securing control of the assets for Scotland, establishing Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) to manage the assets, ensuring a smooth transfer for staff, tenants and other stakeholders and reforming the overall framework for management of the assets through the Scottish Crown Estate Act 2019. We are also working with Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) to identify how wider benefits for Scotland can be enhanced and local approaches to management can be piloted. The objectives, priorities and policies have been developed to enable further progress on these reforms while ensuring alignment to Scottish Ministers' wider objectives, priorities and policies.

I am confident that the objectives, priorities and policies for the Scottish Crown Estate not only align with our wider programme presented in the National Performance Framework but that these can also make a significant contribution to our wider objectives, priorities and policies across a range of activities. These include our response to the global climate emergency, delivery of the principles in the National Planning Framework and the National Marine Plan, implementation of the Energy Strategy, National Tourism Strategy and our work on land reform. Enhancing community empowerment is also an overall priority.

The assets form a core element on how we can protect, use and develop our marine, coastal, rural and other assets in future. Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) is responsible for management of these physical assets but the expertise and commitment of the staff is another vital asset that Scotland benefits from through their work to maximise the opportunities that can be derived from the physical assets of the Scottish Crown Estate.

I want to ensure that Scotland can continue to draw upon this expertise and commitment. Our work in future to reform the management of the assets should have such issues at the core of their design, including discussions on how we can deliver local ambitions to enhance local control of assets where such ambitions exist in different parts of Scotland.

I look forward to receiving views on the proposed vision, objectives, priorities and policies for the Scottish Crown Estate, and to further discussions with communities on how we can further enhance the positive outcomes from managing these important assets for the benefit of Scotland while protecting their value to the Scottish Crown Estate.

Roseanna Cunningham
Cabinet Secretary for the Environment,
Climate Change and Land Reform