THE Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall “are public property” and do not belong to the royal family, a fresh report has claimed.
The report from anti-monarchy campaign group Republic proclaims to provide “clear evidence” the estates are owned by the state and are not private property of King Charles and Prince William.
Entitled Ditch the Duchies, the report calls for the abolition of both the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall and for their revenue to be spent on local communities through a new “National Estate”.
Buckingham Palace insists the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall – two vast property empires that generate private income for the monarch and the monarch’s male heir respectively – are “private” estates, but there has long been a debate over who really owns them and who is entitled to their profits: the royals or the people.
The report says: “We have identified new material that as far as we are aware has not previously been considered in the context of establishing the status of the duchies as public rather than private institutions."
Last month, it emerged Prince William is set to receive millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money from the vacant HMP Dartmoor in Devon, which is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and leased to the Ministry of Justice.
Prince William’s estate is not responsible for upkeep and even has a “dilapidations clause” under the terms of the lease, meaning the taxpayer is essentially liable for any repairs.
Republic has argued in the report the duchies are not the private property of the royals but public assets that have been state property for hundreds of years, and is challenging the family and UK Government to concede this.
The report calls for a new National Estate saying: "The National Estate’s purpose will be the common good, not lining the pockets of two royals.
“In recent weeks Cornwall council has announced the need to cut £50m from its annual budget. Lancaster museum opening times were cut drastically in 2023 due to financial pressures, while a Lancashire charity, Heartbeat, which helps former heart patients stay healthy has recently reported the need to cut services due to a lack of funding. It cost £1m to run a year, a large sum but only a fraction of the Duchy of Cornwall’s annual profits.
“Local communities are losing services and support, services and support which could be helped by a new National Estate with a focus on returning its revenues to the community."
In the early pages of the report, Republic points out how the Duchy of Lancaster website states the Duchy is “a private estate owned by His Majesty The King, as Duke of Lancaster” but insists this sentence has been “carefully constructed”.
“The Duchy is careful in not explicitly saying it is ‘privately owned’ by Charles, but that it is owned by ‘The King, as Duke of Lancaster’,” it says.
“The dukedom comes with the job of head of state and, as this report shows, the Duchy is part of the British state and public property.
“To further muddy the waters, the Duchy website also explains how, in 1399, Henry IV passed a decree, separating the lands from the Crown, implying that from that moment forward the land was the monarch’s private estate. They ignore the law passed by Edward IV forty years later, in which the Duchy was made Crown property, which has remained the case ever since.”
Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, said the report puts any doubt about who owns the duchies “to rest”.
He said: "When the government claims to want to close a £22bn blackhole, how can we justify paying William £23.6m in 2024? How can we defend an annual income of more than £27.4m for our head of state?
"The duchies are public property. Charles and William receive the income only because they are monarch and heir, they do not own the duchies. This report puts any doubt about that to rest.
"I want to see broadcasters, journalists, the government and royals come clean on this issue. Calling the Duchy of Cornwall a 'private estate' is misleading at best.
"We must be clear that there is a choice parliament can make: do we continue to provide gargantuan incomes to William and Charles via the duchies, or do we use those funds to invest in local communities?
"These duchies are Crown land, belonging to the state and ultimately under the control of Parliament. This new report supplies ample evidence to prove the point. The debate must now be about how we can use those assets for the common good."
The full report can be read here.
