The King’s brother, Prince Edward, enjoys his Surrey mansion at a peppercorn rent, it can be revealed, after The Times forced the disclosure of documents held by the Crown Estate.
The Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child, has leased the 51-acre Bagshot Park near Bracknell with his wife, the Duchess of Edinburgh, from the Crown Estate for the last 25 years.
According to the terms of Edward’s lease extension, signed in 2007 with his company, Eclipse Nominees Limited, he paid £5 million upfront for a lease of 150 years, but pays only a peppercorn rent.
There are no conditions on the further sale of Edward’s lease, beyond that the new tenant could afford the property’s maintenance, leaving open the possibility that Edward could profit from its sale.
The Times revealed last month that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, like Edward, had enjoyed the lease of his home, Royal Lodge, at a peppercorn rent after an initial outlay of £8.5 million, raising wider questions about royal finances.
In Andrew’s case, the conditions on his lease of Royal Lodge limited him to passing it on to his wife, Sarah Ferguson, or his children, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
It is understood that the premium paid for the 2007 lease extension and as a down payment on future rent was “market tested” by the Crown Estate before the price was agreed, and there are restrictions on the way the property can be used in line with the historical nature of the park and property.
The Royal Lodge revelations led to outrage that Andrew, the disgraced associate of the notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was occupying the property at what amounted to a public subsidy.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was forced out of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park after further revelations about his relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
As a working member of the royal family who is often seen representing the Windsors at official engagements, Edward has several charitable patronages, including the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which promotes outdoor activities for young people.
Campaigners have questioned whether Edward, 15th in line to the throne, can justify his occupation of a property that could otherwise be leased by the Crown Estate for taxpayer benefit.
Edward, who was granted the title Duke of Edinburgh by the King after the death of his father, Prince Philip, initially leased the property for 50 years for £5,000 a year in March 1998.
The sum later went up to £90,000 a year — described by the National Audit Office as “market value” — after Edward paid £1.36 million to help renovate the property, with the Crown Estate covering the rest of the £3 million refurbishment costs.
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Unlike Royal Lodge, the Crown Estate received two alternative offers for Bagshot Park, one for the establishment of a conference centre and another to convert the property into a hotel, after the Ministry of Defence handed back its lease on the site in 1996.
This lease was extended under the 2007 deal. While some of the details about that deal were reported through briefings, the full lease itself was not published. The heavily redacted version on the Land Registry made it impossible to establish whether he continued to pay a market rent.
Despite releasing an unredacted copy of Andrew’s lease to reporters, the Crown Estate had initially declined to disclose a copy of Edward’s Bagshot Park lease, forcing The Times to request the full lease under freedom of information laws.
The grade II listed mansion was built between 1875 and 1879 on instructions from Queen Victoria as a home for her third son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
The Crown Estate’s profits feed back into the exchequer to the benefit of the taxpayer. Its financial outlay on matters of questionable public benefit has come under scrutiny after the revelations about Andrew’s favourable deal at Royal Lodge.
After public outrage, the disgraced prince has agreed to move to accommodation at the King’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
Andrew will move to the Sandringham Estate
TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS
The disclosure comes on the back of wider questions about why royal finances have remained so secretive.
Royal wills and details of the private trusts used to fund their activities have been kept from the public, despite the key role the royal family play in British public life and the immense soft power they hold.
Unlike other public officials, correspondence with royal family members is also subject to special exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, making it harder to investigate how royals use their influence.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh moved into Bagshot Park despite two commercial offers to take over the lease
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP
Any correspondence between the King and the Prince of Wales and public authorities is completely barred from disclosure, with no right of appeal, a rule only brought in by the government in recent years.
The royal author and former Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker said: “It is obscene not just that Edward and Sophie have been given a 120-room mansion to live in, but even more so that they have to pay a mere peppercorn rent, less than a struggling couple would pay to rent a pokey flat in Romford.”
A spokesperson for campaign group Republic said: “There is absolutely no reason why Edward should be supplied with subsidised housing. These properties are state-owned. They should not be in the gift of the monarch for their family. Most people have no idea who Edward is or what he does. Why is he getting any state subsidy?”
The Crown Estate and Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thetimes.com ’
