The UK Government is under fresh pressure to hand powers over the hugely valuable seabed to Highlands and islands communities.
The Scottish affairs committee at Westminster will today publish a report calling for control of the foreshore to be devolved directly to north councils.
Leases of the seabed for green-energy schemes in the region will be worth up to £49million by 2020, according to estimates, but it is currently controlled by the Crown Estate and the revenues go to the Treasury.
MPs on the committee published a report two years ago which called for devolution of the powers, branding the Crown Estate Commission “an absentee landlord or tax collector”.
The committee has now strengthened its stance with a new series of recommendations published today.
The Press and Journal also understands that the Labour Party is poised to include a similar recommendation in its package of proposals for further devolution to Scotland.
Such a move would raise hopes of action finally being taken and pile pressure on UK Government ministers.
The Scottish affairs committee’s new report says: “We are even more convinced that decentralisation is essential if local communities are to benefit from the development of these assets.”
Labour’s Ian Davidson, the committee chairman, added: “We remain convinced that the transfer of these assets from an over-centralised London to an over-centralising Edinburgh would not be sufficient, and that local people and local authorities should be given primacy in determining how these assets should be developed and how financial benefits should be distributed.”
The Crown Estate owns forests, farms, parkland, coastline and communities across the UK and is worth an estimated £7.3billion.
The committee’s report is being published on the same day the UK Government announces that Scottish projects will be able to bid for a share of £14million from the Coastal Communities Fund, which was set up by the coalition government to redistribute Crown Estate income.