Duncan Bowie on the Royal Family’s secret assets and income
It would be tempting to write about the medieval comic opera of the State opening of parliament and the King’s speech from the throne, a ridiculous anachronism in a modern democratic society, or the question of why all British citizens are all supposed to be deferential to one specific family (of German/Greek/Danish extraction – the Saxe-Gotha-Coburg Battenburgs) or the fact that King Charles is Head of the Church of England because of the sexual appetite of one of his distant ancestors, Henry VIII, or why for that matter 26 religious leaders from a single religious sect sit in one of our legislative chambers, but instead I will focus on the feudal exploitation that is the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancashire.
The Sunday Times and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme are to be congratulated on their recent investigation into these two feudal landlords, the first of which helps to fund the luxury lifestyle of the Prince of Wales, the latter that of the King. The Duchies operate in a different manner from the Crown Estate, which while owned by the King is independently managed, with the profits from its operations paid to H M Treasury, which then pays the king an annual grant, known as the “sovereign grant”, based on a proportion of the profits – which has varied between 40m and £75m – the higher figure included a contribution to funding the renovation of Buckingham Palace, which is now estimated to cost £369m.
The Duchies are different. They retain all the profit from their commercial operations and are not liable for tax, though Charles as Prince of Wales offered to pay tax at the normal rate, once expenses have been deducted. The monarch has voluntarily paid tax on the Duchy of Lancaster holdings since 1993. Tax paid for the last two years has not yet been declared. The Duchy of Lancaster owes its origins to the holdings of Simon de Montford in 1265. The Duchy of Cornwall is of more recent origin and was established in 1337 by Edwad III to allow his son, Prince Edward, to live independently. The Duchy of Lancaster rural estate is 44,748 acres and also has commercial property in Lancashire, Cheshire and London. The Duchy of Cornwall owns 55,264 acres, mainly in the West of England and runs commercial farms and businesses, including holiday cottages. The Duchy originals greengrocer brand established by the then Prince Charles in1990 is a separate enterprise. This information is all on the two Duchy websites, but the Sunday Times and Dispatches have dug a little bit deeper.
What was shocking was the extent to which the Duchies charge public sector bodies for the use of land and property. The Duchy of Cornwall owns large sections of the seashore, so the Royal Navy (note the term “Royal”) is charged for accessing its oil depot near Devonport so it can refuel its ships and the Ministry of Defence had to pay to lease the land for a jetty which it had paid for and to moor boats at the Royal Naval College and for its soldiers to train on moorland in the Dartmoor national park. The Ministry of Justice pays £37.5m for the use of His Majesty’s prison at Dartmoor. In London, £11.4m is paid to the Duchy of Lancaster so the NHS can park ambulances in a warehouse in London. Electricity providers are charged £28m for running cables under the seashore and £4.5m for leasing land for a wind farm. Liverpool council pays the Duchy of Lancaster to operate the Mersey Gateway bridge over the King’s Mersey river foreshore. The Dorset Fire Authority pays £612,000 for leasing land on which a fire station sits. A pub in Exeter has a basic rent but then pays more if its turnover increases, so no doubt the King hopes the Hole in the Wall’s customers will drink more than is good for them. It is not just the Republic campaign group which is angry. The Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh, hardly a known radical, at the time chair of the Public Accounts committee. questioned in parliament whether it was appropriate for the Royal family to profit from the provision of public services. Schools are charged for the use of land. The Duchies are proud that they are self-financing,
in other words they do not require direct government grant such as the sovereign grant.
It is sometimes questioned whether the King and Prince William are really helping to save the planet by taking private jets to conferences around the world to promote the case ( a criticism which can be also applied to leading politicians and environmental campaigners) But their patronising of charities and visits to schools or hospitals which give them such deferential press coverage are only one side of the picture. I am sure both the King and William are perfectly decent people, and I am sure having a Royal family is good for the tourist industry and attracts tourists from countries such as the USA, China, Brazil, Mexico,, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania and all the other countries who got rid of their own royal families, but surely at least some of the countless Royal palaces could be used to house the homeless (the Scandinavian royals seem to manage with only one palace each) and the Duchies should be abolished , with their lands, properties and income transferred to the State for public benefit.
Whenever the anti-monarchist flag is twirled It is almost invariably by the political wannabes of the day playing their cost-free “look at me, aren’t I radical” card. It tries to rally backing ranging from the simple “Class War – kill the rich” brigade through to reasonably sane supporters of the need for constitutional reform. The idea is to align an improbable front of people who, as in the case of Brexit, actually agree on very little.
We do need to reform the Houses of Parliament and, in doing so, may find an alternative to monarchy that goes beyond personal dislike of the current incumbent of the throne. It doesn’t help that so few UK citizens could give a plausible description of how legislation comes into being and the strengths and weaknesses of that current process.
Those who have sat through the more tedious sessions of Parliament will have noticed how few MPs attend and that those who do are largely focused on other business. That is just fine by the Whips Office who have attached an invisible cord to the hands of their slaves who will vote as required. Functional, but it doen’t make for thorough scrutiny.
But until several someone’s can be bothered to draft those constitutional amendments and campaigned for support, the wannabes will have to make do with their charade of demanding a “republic” whenever they want some limelight.