[Diggers350] How the Windsors got their billion+ property empire, a right Royal RIP-OFF in line with Henry VIII

Mon May 1 00:29:42 BST 2023

How the Windsors got their millions, a right 
Royal RIP-OFF more in line with Henry VIII than a modern democracy,

https://tlio.org.uk/how-the-windsors-got-their-millions-is-a-right-royal-rip-off-more-in-line-with-henry-viii-than-a-modern-democracy/
<https://tlio.org.uk/how-the-windsors-got-their-millions-is-a-right-royal-rip-off-more-in-line-with-henry-viii-than-a-modern-democracy/>30 
April 2023 <https://tlio.org.uk/author/tony/>Tony 
Gosling 
<https://tlio.org.uk/how-the-windsors-got-their-millions-is-a-right-royal-rip-off-more-in-line-with-henry-viii-than-a-modern-democracy/#respond>Leave 
a comment

The way the Windsors got their millions is a 
Royal RIP-OFF more in line with Henry VIII than a 
modern democracy, 
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11910185/The-Windsor-millions-right-Royal-RIP-says-former-government-minister-NORMAN-BAKER.html>writes 
author and former government minister NORMAN BAKER

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11910185/The-Windsor-millions-right-Royal-RIP-says-former-government-minister-NORMAN-BAKER.html 

    * Author has led the way holding the Royal 
Family to account over huge wealth
    * But they use the tax system to their 
advantage and evade awkward questions
    * 
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9958453/NORMAN-BAKER-Charles-hide-aides-fingerprints-mess.html>Read 
here: Charles cant hide behind aides. His fingerprints are all over this
Emacs!

By 
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Norman+Baker+Former+Government+Minister>Norman 
Baker Former Government Minister

Published: 07:00, 29 April 2023

It is a curious thing that our 
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/index.html>Royal 
Family was effectively bankrupt in 1760 when 
George III came to the throne, so much so that 
did a deal with Parliament to hand over Crown 
lands in return for an annual grant known as the Civil List.

Yet today, the Windsors are fabulously wealthy in 
their own right, with every senior member worth 
at least 20 million. One recent calculation put 
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/prince_charles/index.html>King 
Charless wealth at up to 480 million.

You have to ask how such a transformation came to pass.

There was a big hint recently when The Mail on 
Sunday revealed that the whole of Queen 
Elizabeths estate had been bequeathed to her 
son, King Charles, without a penny of tax being 
paid. Uniquely, the monarch does not pay death duties.

Emacs!

The Scilly Isles have been owned by the Duchy of 
Cornwall since the beginning of the 14th century. 
Today, all income from the Duchy goes to William, the Prince of Wales

And how much money was involved? Even back in 
2001 The MoS calculated that the Queen was worth 
1.15 billion, almost certainly an underestimate 
then, let alone now. Her stamp collection alone 
was put at 100 million. It is a safe bet to 
assume that what she bequeathed to Charles will have increased substantially.

At any rate, we can assume that the latest 
Monarch-to-Monarch transfer of wealth is a considerable loss to the exchequer.

So, just how much money have the Windsors accumulated?

Exact figures are hard to come by and no wonder: 
the Royal Family likes it that way. At every turn 
they have used the tax system to their advantage 
and a culture of secrecy to prevent awkward questions.

The highly unusual way they treat legacies is a good example.

Wills are public documents, as everyone knows. 
Indeed, they have always been open for inspection 
in this country as an essential safeguard to prevent theft and malpractice.

But uniquely the royals have secured an exemption 
meaning that, since 1911, their wills have been hidden from the public.

Royal wills are locked up in a metal safe behind 
an iron cage in Somerset House. And while over 
the years the scope of the Freedom of Information 
Act has been generally been extended, allowing 
enquiries about a greater range of public bodies, 
secrecy about the royals has gone in the opposite direction. Uniquely.

After pressure from Charles, the supply of 
information has dried up to a dribble.

The National Archives are releasing ever more of 
our historical documents as the years go by, and from earlier and earlier.

The Duchy of Lancaster, including the Whitewell 
Estate in the Forest of Bowland, is owned by the 
monarchy. It was passed directly from the late 
Queen to King Charles with no tax paid

But not royal ones. When I visited Kew, I found 
there were 3,629 closed files on the Royal 
Family. Some are closed for 100 years.

Worse, some files, especially those containing 
embarrassing financial information, are kept in 
the private royal archives in Windsor where they 
will disappear into a black hole, perhaps forever.

Where has all the Windsors money come from? The 
simple answer is that it all originates from the 
public purse, either directly or indirectly 
through unique tax breaks, then augmented by 
investments (again not properly taxed).

Emacs!

Take Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, for 
example. Prince Albert had gone to the 
government, cap in hand, to say the Civil List 
the public subsidy in place since 1760  was 
insufficient to cover royal duties.

But that was not true. When Parliament handed 
over more money, it was instead used to buy these 
two private properties, plus Osborne House, a 
Palladian mansion on the Isle of Wight.

Then there are the fabulously beneficial tax 
breaks. Unlike everyone else in the country, 
monarchs are exempt from death duties. So nothing 
was paid on the estimated 70 million left by the 
Queen Mother. (And where did that come from? Not winnings on the horses).

And nothing has been paid on the vast legacy, 
including private property, from the Queen to 
Charles. The cash-strapped Treasury is being 
deprived of millions by possibly the richest 
family in the country. Between 1952 and 1993 the 
Queen paid no income tax or corporation tax, and no income dividend tax.

In 2001, statisticians from Barclays Capital 
calculated that the 2m stock investment made by 
the Queen in 1951 would, 50 years later, be worth 
1.4 billion. If tax had been paid, the residual 
figure would have been less than 300 million 
almost a billion pounds lost to the public purse from this one source alone.

2012: Royal Gravy Train Kicks In

But it was from 2012 that the royal gravy train 
really picked up speed. Because this was the year 
the Sovereign Grant Act came into force, sweeping 
away the long-established Civil List and 
replacing it with a generous new source of public funding.

The figures speak for themselves. Between 2001 
and 2011, the old Civil List had been set at 7.9 
million annually. In the most recent financial 
year, the Sovereign Grant payout to the Royal 
Family reached a staggering 86.3 million.

And the annual amount can only ever stay the same 
or go up. It can never go down. The Sovereign 
Grant Act overturned a settled way of doing 
things that had lasted more than 250 years.

In 1760, George III did a deal with the 
government: he would surrender land across 
Britain to the nation in return for money from 
the government to support him and his lifestyle.

As part of the deal the government would take 
over responsibility for funding the Armed Forces, 
the secret service, the judiciary and other 
public functions. Over the years, however, some 
Royals have looked at the performance of its 
former land and property, which is today known as the Crown Estates.

They have seen it prosper and have started to 
regret George IIIs arrangement. If only the clock could be turned back

Royal wills are locked up in a metal safe behind 
an iron cage at Somerset House, London

The Duchy of Cornwall even owns the Oval, a test match venue and home to Surrey

Successive governments of all colours had 
resisted this suggestion, until former coalition 
Chancellor George Osborne disastrously agreed to re-establish the connection.

Now, 25 per cent of the profits from the Crown 
Estates go straight into the royal coffers.

Of course, if Charles really wants to recreate 
the position before 1760, that would require the 
monarch once again to personally fund the 
salaries and pensions of Ministers, judges and 
civil servants, and the costs of the Armed Forces and secret services, too.

It was to lose that heavy burden that George III agreed to a new arrangement.

But the current agreement concerns only in the 
beneficial side of that equation the one that 
that would enrich the Royals, not the one that would entail liabilities.

And what a pay day it was. As the Crown Estates 
holds the rights to the seabeds around Britain, 
the explosion in offshore wind, the biggest 
offshore windpower development in the world, is 
giving the royals a massive windfall, billions 
that before 2012 would have gone into the 
Treasury to help pay for schools, hospitals and defence of the realm.

The royals also benefit from what in effect are 
royal slush funds: the Duchies of Lancaster and 
Cornwall. The only reason they were not handed 
over to the state in 1760 is because they were basically worthless.

Lancaster was worth less than 20 at the time. Now 
they are hugely profitable estates, covering 
large swaths of the country. The Duchy of 
Cornwall even owns the Oval cricket ground extra 
cover for Charles to hit the taxpayer for six.

The royals are at pains to say these estates are 
private, yet in the past they have been 
classified as government departments. There is in 
fact still a minister for the Duchy of Lancaster. 
And if they are private, how come they are exempt 
from corporation tax, unlike any other private estate?

When it comes to royal money, secrecy is king.

The Royals are not cheap to run. Besides the 
ballooning Sovereign Grant, they demand expensive 
security, even for minor Royals whom most people 
have barely heard of, costing the taxpayer an 
estimated further 200 million a year.

Then there are the official properties  way in 
excess of what is needed to sustain a constitutional monarchy.

The State supports not just Buckingham Palace but 
also St Jamess Palace, Clarence House, 
Marlborough House Mews, Kensington Palace, 
Windsor Castle, Frogmore Cottage and Hampton 
Court Mews, to name but a few. In total, the 
taxpayer pays for more than 100 Royal buildings.

NORMAN BAKER: In fairness to Charles, he appears 
keen to rein in royal expenditure, having ordered 
non-working Windsors, such as Andrew, to  live more prudently

Meanwhile, the public purse funds the whole 
sprawling network of 99 Lords Lieutenant (not to 
mention hundreds more deputies) who act as the Kings personal representatives.

In fairness to Charles, he appears keen to rein 
in royal expenditure, having ordered non-working 
Windsors, such as Andrew, to either live more 
prudently or earn some money of their own.

Yet this is no more than scratching the surface 
of his rather medieval arrangements in which the 
State should provide him with copious amounts of 
public money, free from taxation, with no questions asked.

Its a royal rip-off more in line with the 
practices of his ancestor Henry VIII than a modern democracy.

Norman Baker is a former minister and MP, and a 
serving Privy Counsellor. He is author of And 
What Do You Do?  What The Royal Family Doesnt 
Want You To Know published by Biteback, 10.99

Emacs!

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