{"id":2122715,"date":"2025-10-29T14:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2122715"},"modified":"2025-10-29T14:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:26:12","slug":"parliaments-spending-watchdog-raises-value-for-money-concern-over-royal-lodge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/parliaments-spending-watchdog-raises-value-for-money-concern-over-royal-lodge\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament\u2019s spending watchdog raises \u2018value for money\u2019 concern over Royal Lodge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Parliament\u2019s spending watchdog has raised concerns over the value for money of Prince Andrew\u2019s living arrangements amid a furore over his \u201cpeppercorn\u201d rent at Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has written to the Treasury and the Crown Estate asking them to explain the rationale behind the lease arrangements on the 30-room mansion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The King\u2019s brother is said to be in talks with Charles\u2019s representatives about leaving the property voluntarily following renewed controversy over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a letter published on Wednesday, PAC chairman and Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: \u201cThere 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He asked \u201cthat you write to us providing an update on the status of, and rationale for, the lease\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Andrew sought to draw a line under years of controversy after accusations that he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, by giving up his dukedom and other titles ahead of the publication of her posthumous memoirs earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But the prince, who strenuously denies the allegations, was instead swamped by criticism focused on the property he has lived in effectively rent-free since 2003.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal dialogue\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Prince Andrew\u2019s living arrangements at Royal Lodge have attracted criticism in the wake of his decision to relinquish his titles (Chris Jackson\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In his letter, Sir Geoffrey said the Crown Estate has a duty to manage its land \u201caccording to the best consideration of money or money\u2019s worth which in their opinion can be reasonably obtained.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He went on: \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey must also be justifiable in comparison to other options for the use or disposal of the property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt is also a matter of concern to the Committee that the terms of the lease, including those relating to maintenance, are being effectively enforced to maintain the value and character of this nationally important royal residence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Treasury and the Crown Estate have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parliament\u2019s spending watchdog has raised concerns over the value for money of Prince Andrew\u2019s living arrangements amid a furore over his \u201cpeppercorn\u201d rent at Royal Lodge. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has written to the Treasury and the Crown Estate asking them to explain the rationale behind the lease arrangements on the 30-room mansion. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2122716,"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":[80533,400002,22942,403107,372619,22931,308662,403108,403106],"class_list":["post-2122715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-crown-estate","tag-geoffrey-clifton-brown","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-lease-arrangements","tag-living-arrangements","tag-prince-andrew","tag-royal-lodge","tag-sir-geoffrey","tag-value-for-money"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parliaments-spending-watchdog-raises-\u2018value-for-money-concern-over-Royal.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122715","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=2122715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2122717,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122715\/revisions\/2122717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2122716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}