King Charles is making millions out of the cash-strapped NHS, a shocking investigation into secretive royal finances reveals.
The Duchy of Lancaster, a property empire which provides a private income to the monarch, is charging one NHS trust at least £11.4 million in rent to store its ambulances over the next 15 years.
Bombshell documents reveal the duchy is earning £830,000 a year from renting a two-storey warehouse to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London.
The unprecedented audit of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Prince of Wales’s private estate, shows taypayers are shelling out millions every year to boost the wealth of the senior royals.
As well as the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, local authorities and other public bodies are swelling the coffers of the Duchies, a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation broadcast last night found.
Charities – even those where the King is patron – are also stumping up millions, the five-month investigation of more than 5,000 landholdings and properties shows.
The revelations come as struggling Britons were hit by Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘s £40 billion tax hike budget last week – and will spark renewed debate about how much tax the royals should pay, and how secretive they are about their operations.
Duchy money is private income for Charles and William on top of the Sovereign Grant, which will pay the Royal Family £132 million next year, up 50 per cent on this year.
The estates have helped make the British royal family one of the richest in the world, generating almost £50 million for the King and the Prince of Wales in the last year alone
The Duchy of Cornwall, helmed by Prince William , says that ‘it is not a public body, nor is it funded by the taxpayer’
The Duchies are run as commercial enterprises, but pay no capital gains tax nor corporation tax. Both Charles and William do pay income tax, but it is not clear how much.
The astonishing findings show:
- The Duchies have struck deals worth at least £50 million with public services such as the NHS, state schools and the Armed Forces;
- The Ministry of Justice is paying £37.5 million over 25 years to use Dartmoor prison, which is currently empty because of radon gas;
- Charles and William have made at least £22 million in rent from charities over 19 years – sometimes while serving as their patrons;
- Homes rented out by the royal estates fail government energy efficiency standards and leave tenants struggling with mould;
- Prince William, who tomorrow heads to South Africa for his eco Earthshot Prize, has allowed controversial mining companies to drill on Duchy of Cornwall land.
Dame Margaret Hodge, former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, led calls for greater transparency of royal finances – and for the tax regime to be tightened up.
The total asset value of the Duchy – a portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the Sovereign – rose by almost 3 per cent from £533 million to £548 million. Part of the estate is the medieval Lancaster Castle (pictured)
The 18,433 hectare Duchy estate, which was founded in the 13th century is a unique portfolio of land and assets in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire. Another assest is Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire (pictured)
She said: ‘I’d love King Charles to volunteer that he would open up the affairs of all these organisations to much greater public scrutiny at a time when people are feeling poor. It’s taxpayers’ money.’
The Duchy of Lancaster, which last year generated £27.4 million for the King, and the Duchy of Cornwall, which raised £23.6 million for William, are not required to pay business taxes.
Both estates claim they are not funded by the taxpayer, but the cache of documents obtained by Dispatches and the Sunday Times lay bare the huge income they receive from public services.
Last year, the Duchy of Lancaster said it was ‘delighted to help and support’ Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust as it sought a home for its new fleet of electric ambulances. But the hospitals are being charged 67 per cent more rent for the warehouse than the previous tenant, the Metropolitan Police.
The MoS can reveal that the NHS Trust’s boss Professor Ian Abbs last year described its financial climate as ‘extremely challenging’.
The Duchy of Cornwall is also profiting from public services. In 2017, it billed Devon county council £300,000 in a 21-year rental deal for a primary school on Dartmoor.
Other deals include charging a primary school near Bath £60,000 for a 25-year lease and £189,000 to a secondary school in Cornwall over 30 years to use a farmhouse. The Duchy of Cornwall also charges the military to train on its 67,500 acres of Dartmoor, but the MoD would not disclose the exact bill. That is despite Charles being head of the Armed Forces and William being a lieutenant colonel in the Army.
Charities have also paid millions to the duchies to rent a 1960s office block in London next to the MI6 HQ.
They include Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care, where Charles is patron, and Comic Relief, which William has promoted.
Former minister Norman Baker called the Duchies ‘royal slush funds’, adding: ‘The 20-odd million pounds they each generate every year should be going to the taxpayer, The Royals want to be private when it suits them and public when it suits them.’
King Charles III watches his horse ‘Gilded Water’ run, and finish 12th, in the King George V Stakes on day three ‘Ladies Day’ of Royal Ascot 2024
The Monarchy was close to bankrupt when George III came to the throne in 1760. He gave his land to the state in return for an annual income – but held on to the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, then seen as worthless
King Charles III attends a ceremonial welcome for The President and the First Lady of the Republic of Korea at Horse Guards Parade on November 21, 2023 in London
The Duchy of Cornwall said it is ‘a private estate with a commercial imperative… committed to restoring the natural environment’, and said it was ‘acting in a responsible and sustainable way’ on mining.
The Duchy of Lancaster said it ‘operates as a commercial company’ and ‘complies with all relevant UK legislation’.
