Future Offshore Wind - Area of Focus Engagement - Preliminary Market Engagement Notic

Descriptions

The Crown Estate (TCE) periodically holds competitive tenders to lease areas of the seabed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the construction and operation of offshore wind farms.

TCE, through its collaborative, strategic delivery approach for the seabed and coastline - the Marine Delivery Routemap - has identified the most suitable regional areas of potential opportunity for future offshore wind in England and Wales. These areas were published in the Future of offshore wind report (Future of offshore wind | The Crown Estate) in September 2024.

The Marine Delivery Routemap (MDR) will be a strategic tool to help address the growing spatial pressures on the seabed. With a rapid increase in demand for space and rising spatial conflicts, there is a pressing need to offer greater visibility and coherence to support strategic planning and decision-making. The Routemap is designed to facilitate structured dialogue across agencies and sectors, drawing on the best available data and evidence.

As part of our planning for future offshore wind leasing, TCE intends to conduct a series of market engagement events. The most recent event was a market focussed webinar to provide an overview of the Routemap, along with an update on our spatial work to-date, regarding the regional areas of potential opportunity. This event took place on 14 August 2025.

Our next market engagement session will be presenting the Areas of Focus (AoF) for future offshore wind leasing, which is the next stage of spatial design. This online webinar is targeted at offshore wind developers and will take place at 12:30 - 13:30, 6 October 2025.

The Crown Estate is in the early stages of designing future offshore wind leasing rounds, which this engagement event will inform, and there is currently no formal date for the launch of the procurement which may consist of one or more leasing rounds. Therefore, the date set out below ("Engagement deadline") refers to the engagement event, rather than the contract notice for any subsequent leasing tender process. For further information on The Crown Estate's involvement in offshore wind please visit https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/our-business/marine/offshore-wind.