<\/p>\n
After Prime Minister\u2019s Questions last week, Ms Badenoch\u2019s spokesman said there was \u201ca case for a review\u201d of the report from 2005.<\/p>\n
It is understood that the NAO reviews the situation at Royal Lodge as part of its annual audit of the Crown Estate. However, this is just to ensure funds are properly accounted for and does not amount to a reassessment of value for money.<\/p>\n
Prince Andrew moved into the property, the former home of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, following her death in 2002.<\/p>\n
He signed a 75-year lease in 2003 after paying an initial down payment of \u00a31m and a promise \u2013 which he kept \u2013 to spend \u00a37.5m on renovations. The Lodge, which includes extensive grounds and eight cottages, is worth at least \u00a330m.<\/p>\n
A copy of the leasehold agreement shows that the Prince has paid \u201cone peppercorn\u201d in rent per year, \u201cif demanded\u201d, for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
The revelation has raised concerns that the public could have been deprived of potential income from the Prince\u2019s property, given that profits from the Crown Estate are handed to the Treasury.<\/p>\n
The Royal Lodge agreement also says that the Crown Estate would need to pay Prince Andrew about \u00a3558,000 to cut the lease short and move out this year.<\/p>\n
Last week, No 10 refused to say whether any taxpayer funds could be used to cover the cost of the early exit.<\/p>\n
The Lib Dems have now demanded \u201cclarity\u201d from the Government on the issue, insisting people \u201cdeserve to know\u201d how their money is being spent.<\/p>\n
The party is considering using its next Opposition Day debate in Parliament to force a discussion on officially removing the Prince\u2019s Duke of York title.<\/p>\n
Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem cabinet office spokesman, told The Telegraph: \u201cBy disgracing his office, Prince Andrew has relinquished any rights to special treatment at the expense of the taxpayer. The Government needs to provide clarity. Taxpayers deserve to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing we need is proper transparency and accountability – that\u2019s why the Liberal Democrats have already called for the Crown Estate and Prince Andrew to give evidence under oath in Parliament before a select committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After Prime Minister\u2019s Questions last week, Ms Badenoch\u2019s spokesman said there was \u201ca case for a review\u201d of the report from 2005. It is understood that the NAO reviews the situation at Royal Lodge as part of its annual audit of the Crown Estate. However, this is just to ensure funds are properly accounted for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2117125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[369482,401592,401593,398493,21738,22931,22769,344742,24515,356051,382398],"class_list":["post-2117124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-keir-starmer","tag-kemi-badenoch","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-live-priority","tag-news","tag-prince-andrew","tag-royal-family","tag-standard","tag-the-royal-family","tag-uk-news","tag-us-content"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Prince-Andrews-finances-face-scrutiny-from-spending-watchdog.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2117126,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117124\/revisions\/2117126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2117125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}