King and
Prince William’s estates ‘making millions from charities and public services’
Duchies of
Cornwall and Lancaster likely to make at least £50m from leasing land to
services such as NHS and schools, according to investigation
Richard
Palmer
Sat 2 Nov
2024 19.50 GMT
King Charles
and Prince William’s property empires are taking millions of pounds from
cash-strapped charities and public services including the NHS, state schools
and prisons, according to a new investigation.
The reports
claim the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which are exempt from business
taxes and used to fund the royals’ lifestyles and philanthropic work, are set
to make at least £50m from leasing land to public services. The two duchies
hold a total of more than 5,400 leases.
One 15-year
deal will see Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS hospital trust in London pay £11.4m to
store its fleet of electric ambulances in a warehouse owned by the Duchy of
Lancaster, the monarch’s 750-year-old estate.
The king
will also make at least £28m from windfarms because the Duchy of Lancaster
retains a feudal right to charge for cables crossing the foreshore, according
to an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times.
William’s
Duchy of Cornwall, the hereditary estate of the heir to the throne, has signed
a £37m deal to lease Dartmoor prison for 25 years to the Ministry of Justice,
which is liable for all repairs despite paying £1.5m a head for a jail empty of
prisoners because of high levels of radon gas.
His estate
also owns Camelford House, a 1960s tower block on the banks of the Thames,
which has brought in at least £22m since 2005 from rents paid by charities and
other tenants. Two cancer charities, Marie Curie and Macmillan – of which the
king is a longstanding patron – have both recently moved out to smaller
premises.
The Duchy of
Cornwall has charged the Royal Navy more than £1m to build and use jetties and
moor warships. It also charges the army to train on Dartmoor but the Ministry
of Defence refused a Freedom of Information Act request asking how much it
costs. The duchy also made more than £600,000 from the construction of a fire
station and stands to get nearly £600,000 from rental agreements with six state
schools.
In spite of
the king and Prince William’s speeches and interventions on environmental
issues, many residential properties let out by the royal estates are in breach
of basic government energy efficiency standards.
The
investigation found 14% of homes leased by the Duchy of Cornwall and 13% by the
Duchy of Lancaster have an energy performance rating of F or G. Since 2020, it
has been against the law for landlords to rent out properties that are rated
below an E under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards regulations.
The Duchy of
Lancaster said: “Over 87% of all duchy-let properties are rated E or above. The
remainder are either awaiting scheduled improvement works or are exempted under
UK legislation.”
The royal
estates also have deals with mining and quarrying companies.
The
investigation has prompted calls for a parliamentary investigation and for the
two empires to be folded into the crown estate, which sends its profits to the
government. The king and Prince William pay income tax on profits from the
estates after business expenses have been deducted, but both now refuse to say
how much.
Baroness
Margaret Hodge, a former chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said
the duchies should at least pay corporation tax. “This would be a brilliant
time for the monarch to say, I’m going to be open, and I want to be treated as
fairly as anybody,” she said.
Both duchies
said they were commercial operations that complied with statutory requirements
to disclose information. They also emphasised their efforts to become greener.
The Duchy of
Lancaster said: “His majesty the king voluntarily pays tax on all income
received from the duchy.”
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