(I probably should point out that we have an involvement with the Duchy of Cornwall in that it has an absolute claim on the mineral rights of our property. And for that privilege, and potential earnings, they do nothing. That's enough to make me a Republican. Oh, hang about.....)
I've just caught up on Channel 4’s Dispatches programme which revealed the extent to which the public is being charged/milked/scammed by the Windsor family. Or rather, at least the extent to which the programme and the investigative reporters of the Sunday Times were able to uncover. The Windsors go to great lengths to keep their finances a secret. This is an immense help to them when they plead poverty and ask for yet another increase to the money that they get from the government (ie the taxpayers) every year. The property portfolios which generate millions a year for Charles and his oldest son are a closely guarded secret. Even parliament itself has been refused access to the list of properties and land held by the Royals. These properties are part of the holdings of the Duchy of Cornwall which funds the heir to the throne, and the Duchy of Lancaster which funds the monarch.
The Windsors insist that these are private property when it comes to avoiding public scrutiny, but part of the monarchy when it comes to avoiding paying the same taxes that any other private property holdings company would be liable for. Yet these properties were not acquired in the normal way that a property holding company acquires property. The two duchies are making many millions of pounds every year by charging government departments, local authorities, NHS Health Boards, businesses, mining companies and the general public via a series of commercial rents and feudal levies on land which, for the most part, was seized by medieval monarchs from those that they deemed enemies, or from those whose lands they just felt like helping themselves to. Charles and his son owe their fortunes literally to robber barons. Medieval monarchies were not charitable institutions and the modern royals are continuing in the same vein, funding their luxurious lifestyle on the backs of we the peasants.
The Duchies operate as commercial landlords even though they have a special agreement with the Treasury exempting them from paying tax on their corporate profits. The Duchies are not directly funded by the taxpayer but leases and contracts in the King and Prince’s own names show they are making millions of pounds a year by charging the army, the navy, the NHS, the prison service and state schools to use their land, rivers and seashores. Yes, they own seashores. Real seashores.
The tax free income that the royals receive from the Duchies is in addition to the Sovereign Grant, which currently stands at £132 million annually which they receive from the government. This is meant to cover the cost of the royals’ official duties, palaces and households. Last year, the Duchy of Lancaster raised £27.4 million tax free for the King and the Duchy of Cornwall raised £23.6 million in tax free for the Prince of Wales. This is considered private income which the royals can spend as they see fit. The King and the Prince ‘voluntarily’ pay income tax on that part of their income from the Duchies which they deem not to relate to their official duties. The rest of us don’t get the chance to claim that we only pay tax voluntarily and to decide for ourselves which portion of our incomes we are going to pay income tax on.
But the property holdings of the Duchies are not all that the royals possess. One consultancy company put the combined wealth of the royal family at £67.5 billion. By any reckoning, these are extremely wealthy people. Yet, this huge wealth does not prevent the royals from charging rent and creaming off hard pressed public services. According to the Sunday Times: “The Duchy Files show the royals charge for the right to cross rivers; offload cargo onto the shore; run cables under their beaches; operate schools and charities; and even dig graves. They earn revenue from toll bridges, ferries, sewage pipes, churches, village halls, pubs, distilleries, gas pipelines, boat moorings, opencast and underground mines, car parks, rental homes and wind turbines.”
Amongst other findings of the investigation is the revelation that the NHS will pay the Duchy of Lancaster £12.4m over 15 years in order to rent a warehouse in London for ambulances. In January last year, the Duchy of Lancaster said it was pleased to be of assistance when Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust needed to find garage space for a new fleet of electric vehicles it was buying to tackle ambulance waiting times and it put out a press release saying that it had “granted” the trust a warehouse close to Tower Bridge. The press release omitted to say that the Duchy would be charging the Trust an annual rent of £829,348. That totals £12,440,220 over the 15 years of the lease. The NHS has been starved of funds for years but that is of no consideration to the Duchy of Lancaster. The NHS Trust which Charles is milking to the tune of £12 million is so strapped for cash that it has been forced to make job cuts, axing 58% of the roles in its Facilities and Capital Development team, the staff responsible for transport and construction projects.
The Duchies were retained by the monarchy in the 18th century when the bulk of the Crown Estates were surrendered to the government in return for clearing the debts of George the Prince Regent, later King George IV, and with the agreement that the government would fund the day to day expenses of the monarchy. At the time neither Duchy was seen as particularly valuable. Over the succeeding decades, obsequious British Governments agreed to the effective annexation of these state properties by the royals as their private and personal property.
Meanwhile the value of the holdings of the Duchies has ballooned and both Duchies have holdings far beyond their traditional territorial bases in Cornwall and Lancashire. Today they are modern property businesses with extensive assets spread across England which are jointly worth £1.8 billion, according to their annual reports. Adjusted to today’s prices, annual profits from the Duchy of Cornwall have soared from around £2.5 million in 1960 to £23.6 million today while profits from the Duchy of Lancaster have increased over the same period from about £2.5 million to £27.4 million. Charles pays only £5.9 million in income tax on the Duchy of Lancaster’s profits, about 25% of the profit he receives. He pays no other taxes on this income.
Recently to much fanfare, the Prince of Wales released a documentary about his ‘efforts’ to tackle homelessness. To no one’s great surprise these efforts do not extend to giving away any of his or his family’s land or obscene wealth or allowing homeless people to take up residence in any of his family’s many palaces and homes.
There has been no great publicity in the British media about the wealth and hypocrisy of the Windsors. The BBC has ignored the story completely. But it will be the first to tell us how “radiant” William’s wife is looking as it continues to perpetuate the fantasy that this is one happy family which cares about the lives of ordinary people. The lack of coverage of the revelations in the Dispatches report from the royal correspondents, whose job it is to report on the British Royal Family, is not surprising in the least. The same so-called journalists who promoted Prince William’s homelessness project are silent on his failures as an actual landlord. That tells you all you need to know, both about the greed of the royals, and the British establishment and its client media. Power to the people, I say, power to the people.
