Republicans will be cheering the release of the National Audit Office’s report into the royal family’s property arrangements, said A.N. Wilson in the Daily Mail. We’ve known for years that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was allowed to live at Royal Lodge, his 30-room former residence in Windsor, for a fraction of its market value. But we now know that he was also allowed to let the three cottages that came with it and “pocket the proceeds”.
‘Unfathomable’ deals
He is not the only member of the royal family to have enjoyed such a generous deal. His daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, have never paid a penny in rent for their grace and favour homes in London, despite being non-working royals; King Charles foots the bill using his private wealth, but at a discount on the market rent of about 40%. Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, who pay a peppercorn rent for the “enormous” Bagshot Park, are also allowed to sublet parts of the house, and other houses on the estate. All this will go down very badly, when so many Britons are “feeling the pinch”.
Some details revealed in the report are “unfathomable”, said Jennie Bond in The i Paper. It’s quite wrong that any money Andrew made through this “private” arrangement did not have to be returned to the Crown Estate, which owns Royal Lodge and pays its profits to the Treasury. In other words, it’s “taxpayers’ money for public spending”.
‘Staggering’ royal estate
Actually, many of the arrangements in the report make sense, said Hannah Furness in The Daily Telegraph. It is right that retired working royals are looked after: Princess Alexandra, the late Queen’s cousin, who is 89, made a one-off payment of £670,000 to rent her house in Richmond Park in 1995, and pays an annual ground rent of some £1,500. Few would “want to see her evicted”. It is also hard to quarrel with most arrangements for the grace and favour apartments, which are provided to long-serving members of staff, who pay rent based on a combination of income and circumstances.
Still, the situation as a whole is certainly problematic, said Craig Prescott in The Sunday Times. This report only covers the Crown Estate and the royal household. The family also has a “staggering array” of other properties at its disposal, as part of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duchy of Cornwall and the private estates of Sandringham and Balmoral. All this will rankle many, particularly young people, who are less likely to own their own homes and whose support for the monarchy is already in decline. It is “distancing the institution of the monarchy from the very generation it needs for its future support”. We need a slimmed-down monarchy, and fewer cosy deals for the extended family.