Storm looming over £6bn wind plan

A ROW between the Crown Estate and wind power companies is threatening the Government's controversial £6bn plan to make Britain the world's biggest offshore windfarm developer.

The Government hopes that sufficient power will be generated from offshore windmills to provide energy for one in six homes.

But the Crown Estate owns the rights to the seabed up to 12 miles off the coast and developers believe they are being held to ransom by a monopoly landlord.

The Crown Estate, a vast property empire dating back to the Norman Conquest, recently posted record profits of £170m, but its managers believe that charging rent to windfarm developers could boost profits further.

By 2020, windpower rentals could create an extra £12.5m for the Estate. Though it is still the property of the Sovereign, the Estate's revenues go to the Treasury for the benefit of taxpayers.

But a source close to the talks between the Estate and the windfarm industry said: 'The negotiations are rocky. It may seem a small amount, but the economics of wind power are precarious.

'Our objection to the whole process is that we are dealing with just one landlord, the Crown Estate. It is unfair. In other countries the offshore is owned by governments and there is no charge.' He also warned that some of the £70m given by the Government to the industry to set up the project would go to the Crown Estate in the form of rent.

A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said: 'If the Crown Estate received substantial evidence that the rental level was inhibiting development, it would be willing to review the rental charges.'