Last November, certain segments of the British media got off their asses and actually did some investigative journalism on the Windsors. Specifically, Channel 4’s Dispatches, along with the Mirror, did a series of exposés on the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall. Lancaster is the “private income” of the monarch, and Cornwall is the “private income” of the Prince of Wales. The investigations revealed just how thoroughly Charles and William loot taxpayer money for sh-t like “garage space for ambulances” and “seabeds used by the Navy.” Alongside that, we learned that the Windsors are full-on slumlords who trap desperate, broke people in cold, moldy rentals. The duchies are under no legal obligation to maintain these rentals either. Speaking of, the Duchy of Cornwall owns the land underneath Dartmoor Prison, and taxpayers have to foot the £1.5 million annual bill to “lease” that land. Except Dartmoor was recently shut down, yet they’re still expected to pay Peggy.

The Prince of Wales is due to receive millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money from a vacant prison that may never reopen. The Duchy of Cornwall, the estate which provides a private income for Prince William, owns HMP Dartmoor and leases it to the Ministry of Justice for £1.5 million a year. But the category-C prison has been empty since July after high levels of toxic gas were recorded in prisoners’ accommodation earlier this year. Its 682 inmates, many of whom are sex offenders serving long sentences, were moved to other jails as the government grappled with the prison overcrowding crisis.

Under the terms of the lease, the Duchy is not responsible for the upkeep of the prison and even has a “dilapidations clause”, which requires the taxpayer to spend up to £68 million to repair the building, despite the fact that it is not owned by the state and was built with taxpayers’ money. This means that the taxpayer is effectively liable for any repairs that are required at Dartmoor.

A report published last month shows that the prison has fallen into further disrepair since staff were ordered to leave. There have been infestations of rats, birds, bats and insects since windows were left open to increase ventilation. The report by the independent monitoring board at HMP Dartmoor, calling for an “urgent decision” on its future, suggests that the prison may never reopen, or 2026 at the earliest. It reveals that unsafe levels of radon — a colourless, odourless radioactive gas which has been linked to lung cancer under prolonged exposure — had already been detected in the prison when the lease was signed.

Some staff have been permanently reassigned to other prisons. The report notes that the “lease requirements would have to be met at, potentially, some considerable cost” if Dartmoor is closed for good.

The 25-year lease, which was struck when the King was Prince of Wales and head of the Duchy, was renewed by the government in March 2022 and commenced in December 2023. The Duchy has increased the cost of the lease by more than double the amount paid in the 1980s, even after taking into account rises for inflation and the terms dictate that the taxpayer would still be required to pay at least £13.5 million more, even if the Ministry of Justice were to end the contract now. A Tory source familiar with the details of the lease renewal said that the MoJ felt it had no alternative but to sign or lose vital prison spaces.

The prison was revealed as the most lucrative taxpayer-funded source of income for the Duchy of Cornwall after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches revealed the assets owned by the royal property empires for the first time.

[From The Times]

“This means that the taxpayer is effectively liable for any repairs that are required at Dartmoor.” Here’s the thing – if this was a state-owned prison, the taxpayer would be liable to make repairs too. But it’s blowing my mind that William’s slumlording extends to refusing to account for upkeep on a prison he OWNS and leases to the government. Not only that, the Duchy is clearly demanding that the government continue to pay the lease, even though Dartmoor is likely to be permanently closed. When I read these stories, it’s unbelievable to me that more people aren’t throwing eggs at Charles and William every time they go outside.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.