The former prince had a generous arrangement on his own and his daughters’ accommodation, with it being revealed that he paid ‘peppercorn rent’ on the St James’ Palace apartment
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may have cost the royal coffers millions of pounds in lost income by exploiting a generous rent arrangement on a flat inhabited by his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
Andrew, who was formally stripped of his title as Prince and the Duke of York, had taken advantage of a rental agreement on royal properties. This included his own residence at Royal Lodge, actually less a lodge than a multi-million pound mansion. His agreement on the property saw Andrew paying what’s called a ‘peppercorn rent’. This is a legal term for a symbolic ‘payment’ of a ‘peppercorn’, ie something of low value, to establish that someone is effectively getting something for free, or very little.
That meant that while Andrew was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the 30-room Royal Lodge, he didn’t have to pay rent. And now it has emerged that the disgraced former prince had a similar agreement on a residence which was occupied by his daughters.
READ MORE: King Charles and William to endure ‘very awkward’ reunion with Andrew Mountbatten-WindsorREAD MORE: Inside King Charles and Sarah Ferguson’s relationship after claims of tell-all book
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday found that Andrew had rented a four-bedroom flat in St James’s Palace in London for £1,600 a month – a bargain for even a studio in some parts of the capital. It emerged that the rental value of the apartment could be some £20,000 a month, or £240,000 a year. The comparison was drawn with another flat in St James’s Palace, Apartment 29A. In 2015 this property was put on the market for £20,000 a month.
This meant that the annual rent that Andrew paid for the apartment was less than the monthly rent if it had been let out on the open market. Andrew’s daughters lived in the property for some 14 years, meaning that the privileged arrangement may have cost the royal coffers some £3.1 million in lost rental income over that period.
Andrew’s lease on the lavish apartment in St James’s Palace, a royal residence originally built in 1536 by Henry VIII, began back in 2008. At the time the flat, which has two reception rooms and a fitted kitchen, had undergone a £250,000 refurbishment at the taxpayer’s expense.Former Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker told the Daily Mail that an inquiry into royal rents and leaseholds by a cross party committee of MPs should be widened.
He said: “The royals are constantly underpaying what they should do.” Mr Baker added: “The public accounts committee needs to go much wider than the inquiry into Royal Lodge. They need to look at the whole business of the Royal Family’s property portfolio, what they own and what they pay.”
The former MP also drew attention to the fact that the Royal Family are exempt from Freedom of Information requests. This makes their affairs more difficult for the public to understand.
The inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee is now set to examine rental arrangements in the royal family. This goes beyond Andrew’s agreements, and will also look at a rent of just £225 a month paid by Princess Alexandria for a property in Richmond.
