Campaigners have expressed outrage that King Charles’s private estate is making a huge rental profit from a cash-strapped NHS Trust forced to make jobs cuts.
The Government has been urged to review the monarchy’s financial arrangements after it emerged that the King and Prince William’s private estates charge public bodies millions of pounds in rent.
An investigation found that the King’s Duchy of Lancaster estate agreed to store electric ambulances owned by Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust in its warehouses at a cost of £11.4m over 15 years.
It comes as the same NHS trust in London prepares to make swinging jobs cuts, axing 58 per cent of the roles in the facilities and capital development team.
The Unite union is threatening to strike over the trust’s plans to reduce the number of roles in the team responsible for transport and construction projects from 154 roles to just 64.
Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham said the hospital had been “acting disgracefully towards its workers who are vital to keep its hospitals functioning”.
An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times revealed that the NHS trust is paying £830,000 a year to the King’s Duchy to rent storage space.
The leasing deal reportedly shows that the rent has increased by 67 per cent above the £15 per square foot paid by the Metropolitan Police, the previous tenant of the Duchy’s warehouse.
It was reported that the Duchy of Cornwall will also earn about £600,000 over the lifetime of six different leases agreed with state schools.
The Duchy is said to have struck a £37m deal to lease Dartmoor Prison to the Ministry of Justice, and a deal with the Ministry of Defence to allow the Armed Forces to train on its land.
The investigation also found that Prince William’s estate had charged the Navy more than £900,000 to build and use jetties and moor warships on the Cornish coastline.
Labour peer Margaret Hodge told i that it was “essential” for the Duchies to stop charging rent on the NHS, schools and other public bodies.
“It’s awful,” said Baroness Hodge, who chaired the Commons public accounts committee when it called for a Treasury probe into the Duchies’ tax status in 2013.
“We need a government review of all the [monarchy’s] finances. I would hope monarchy would co-operate. You would [see] greater transparency over the position on tax and the amount they are funded.”
Former minister Norman Baker told i: “It’s disgusting that [the Duchies] charge the NHS and schools when they are strapped for cash. It’s disgusting that the charge the Army and Navy, who protect King and country.”
The Liberal Democrat grandee, author of And What Do You Do?, a book on royal finances, added: “The increase [in rent charged to the NHS trust] shows they are mercenary about extracting every last penny they can. It’s naked greed. It’s a royal rip-off.”
Mr Baker called for rents charged on public bodies to stop, an end to the Duchies’ special tax status, and a wider Government review of royal finances.
The Duchy of Lancaster is a portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for King Charles. The Duchy of Cornwall is a similar portfolio owned and run by Prince William.
Both estates are exempt from paying corporation tax or capital gains tax. Neither the King nor the Prince of Wales are legally obliged to pay income tax, but both have offered to do so.
The income from both Duchies is separate from the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which pays for the monarch’s official duties.
Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan told i that it was “an obvious conflict of interest” for the Royal Family to earn millions of pounds from the NHS.
“Of greater policy significance however is the expectation that financially challenged public services pay ‘market rates’ rent,” he added, saying the NHS should own its own facilities.
A spokesperson for NHS Million, a grassroots campaign run by NHS staff, said: “Whatever your views on the royal family, we can surely all agree that they shouldn’t be profiting from our NHS.”
Guy Shrubsole, land reform campaigner and author of The Lie of the Land, added: “When it comes to NHS and schools, people will be rightly shocked and angry to hear that the Duchies do not give them peppercorn rents or even social rents.”
A spokesperson for the Duchy of Lancaster said it was “self-financing and does not receive any public funds in connection with its activities”.
They added: “It publishes an annual report and accounts that [are] independently audited and available to view on its website, and complies with all relevant UK legislation and regulatory standards applicable to its range of business activities.”
A Duchy of Cornwall spokesperson said Prince William had committed to “an expansive transformation” of the Duchy.
“This includes a significant investment to make the estate net zero by the end of 2032, as well as establishing targeted mental health support for our tenants and working with local partners to help tackle homelessness in Cornwall.”
Buckingham Palace decline to comment.
A spokesperson for Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust declined to comment on the rental deal with the King’s estate.
The spokesperson for the NHS trust said it was still consulting on the planned job cuts. “We are committed to working in partnership with our trade unions, and will address any issues raised with us through the appropriate channels.”
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