Key Takeaways
- Royal Life: Eleven working royals enjoy rent-free living in palatial properties.
- Financial Mystery: The exact profits from property rentals by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor remain unclear.
- Public Outcry: Critics express outrage over perceived taxpayer exploitation by royal members.
- Crown Estate Statement: The Crown Estate asserts that royal leases were established with professional guidance.
The report showed that 11 working royals were able to live the palace life rent-free and some, like the 66-year-old—who’s now bunking at the King’s Sandringham Estate—were able to turn a profit, the former prince allowed to rent out three properties on the 98-acre Berkshire, England estate.
Just how much he pocketed, however, is a royal mystery with Margaret Hodge, a Labour member of the House of Lords and former head of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, lamenting that “It’s shocking that the National Audit Office was not able to establish how much money Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secured from the properties he let.”
And she’s not the only person refusing to keep calm.
“It shows an absolute contempt for the taxpayer, not only that Andrew was able to have a peppercorn rent for a gigantic property,” detailed former Liberal Democrat lawmaker Norman Baker, “but then to make potentially millions on the side from subletting properties.”
While Buckingham Palace hasn’t publicly commented on the report, a spokesperson for the Crown Estate said in a statement that it “welcomes” the review “which confirms its leases with members of the royal family were agreed in line with independent, professional advice and open market valuations.”
We’re unlocking the truth about just who’s shelling out for the royal family’s palatial properties.
