Prince Edward had to pay the market value for his royal residence while brother Prince Andrew avoided paying rent for two decades.
The revelation has emerged from a National Audit Office report that show Edward, the younger brother of both Charles and Andrew had to pay the market rate for his Surrey residence, Bagshot Park until at least 2007.
The Duke of Edinburgh has lived in the residence for more than 25 years after signing a lease in 1998 and renewed the lease to 150 years for £5 million in 2007.
After his renewal though, the key details of his lease have been redacted on the Land Registry so it is unknown if Edward has continued to pay market rent since.
In addition to his rent, Edward also paid £1.36 million to help renovate Bagshot Park.
His residence was built between 1875 and 1879 as a home for Queen Victoria’s third son, Prince Arthur.
While Prince Andrew contributed £8.5 million to refurbishments after signing a 75-year lease deal for Royal Lodge, Windsor in 2003, according to the National Audit Office and Crown Estate, his deal has allowed him to live rent-free there for 20 years, the Times revealed last week.
Instead, the annual rent Andrew owed was described as “one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum” in the copy of the leasehold agreement obtained by the UK publication.
The report sparked concerns in the UK about the value for money on the arrangement with Andrew, in the wake of him giving up his royal titles including the Duke of York over growing scrutiny around his involvement with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
British Conservative Party MP and chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown sent a letter to the Crown Estate and the Treasury, asking if the taxpayer had funded the refurbishments on Andrew’s property.
“There is considerable and understandable public interest in the spending of public money in relation to Prince Andrew, which in part stems from the fact that he is no longer a working royal and from serious and disturbing allegations made against him,” he said.
“We are therefore concerned as to whether the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge are, in light of recent developments and changes in the responsibilities of Prince Andrew, achieving the best value for money.”
The Crown Estate said it would respond to the MP “in due course”.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.skynews.com.au ’
