[Diggers350] After the scandal of Andrew, the royals owe us transparency about their finances

Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Sun Feb 22 22:46:18 GMT 2026 


After the scandal of Andrew, the royals owe us 
transparency about their finances

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/king-charles-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-royal-family-crisis-duty-empathy-b2924890.html
https://archive.is/hfQ7w#selection-1467.0-1467.4

They have the use of 50 residences on estates 
totalling 250,000 acres and a life of wealth and 
privilege paid for by the public purse, yet their 
financial lives are shrouded in secrecy. The time 
has come to open up the books, writes 
<https://archive.is/o/hfQ7w/https://www.independent.co.uk/author/chris-blackhurst>Chris 
Blackhurst

https://tlio.org.uk/after-the-scandal-of-andrew-the-royals-owe-us-transparency-about-their-finances/
Saturday 21 February 2026 06:00 GMT

Emacs!



Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: Royal historian says 
this is ‘more of a crisis than passing of Princess Diana’
Life will never be the same again for Britain’s 
royal family. The 
<https://archive.is/o/hfQ7w/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrest-jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-b2923610.html>Andrew 
Mountbatten-Windsor scandal has rocked the 
institution 
<https://archive.is/o/hfQ7w/https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/queen-elizabeth-prince-andrew-arrest-b2923614.html>to 
the core. Rather like the banking crisis of 2008, 
when the authorities were desperate to avoid 
contagion dragging down other banks, they are 
keen to 
<https://archive.is/o/hfQ7w/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sarah-ferguson-eugenie-beatrice-epstein-files-andrew-b2912987.html>prevent 
the spread.
For a body that likes to remain discreet and 
private, this is a transforming, unnerving 
prospect. Andrew’s troubles have shone an 
unwelcome light on not only his, but all of their 
living and financial arrangements. It’s not that 
the other royals have anything particular to hide 
– we don’t know – but rather that so much has 
hitherto been off limits. To release all the 
detail, to suddenly go from nothing to 
everything, as they might well be required to, is 
bound to provoke shock and anger.
This is a family, or “firm”, that likes to 
control how it’s presented. While this was once 
justified on the grounds that to let the light in 
somehow destroys the mystique, those days have 
well and truly passed. It is hard to see how 
those guard rails can be preserved when the 
deference has diminished, and MPs and media are 
champing at the bit. Even David Dimbleby (David 
Dimbleby!) has dared to front a documentary that 
asks, pointedly: What’s the Monarchy for?
The National Audit Office is currently 
investigating Andrew’s use of his former home at 
Royal Lodge, and its report will be sent to the 
Commons public accounts committee. Its findings 
will be published and there will be public hearings.
That is just for starters. The probe is not 
likely to stop there. This is an issue that is 
not going to vanish. A public struggling with an 
ever-rising cost-of-living burden, tax increases 
and a chronic housing shortage will demand 
answers, not just about Andrew, but about the 
wider family. They will not be receptive to 
obfuscation. The genie has been released from the 
bottle. There can be no going back.
A detailed report last year from the 
anti-monarchy group Republic put the bill for the 
royal family’s upkeep at more than £500m 
annually. A substantial portion is derived from 
the sovereign grant. It comprises profits from 
the crown estate’s £15bn property portfolio, 
which covers a large area of London’s St James’s 
and locations dotted around Britain. Now, people 
want to know how those revenues are arrived at. 
Are rents properly and fairly calculated? Do some 
tenants enjoy more favourable terms than others?

These are questions – and there are many, many 
others – that will require answers. Transparency 
is the order of the day. Tellingly, given 
Republic’s ideological antecedents, their study 
was not challenged by the royal household or its 
supporters. It prompted Norman Baker, the former 
Lib Dem MP, to ask in a new book, Royal Mint, 
National Debt – The Shocking Truth About the 
Royal Family’s Finances, to highlight that the 
bill for maintaining the UK royal family “is 
undoubtedly much higher than that of any other European monarchy”.
He contrasts them with other royal families. In 
the Netherlands, the heir to the Dutch throne, 
Princess Catharina-Amalia, announced when she was 
18 that she would renounce her £300,000 annual 
income while she was a student and forfeit £1.6m 
in expenses; in Sweden, the king removed royal 
titles from five of his grandchildren; in 
Denmark, the queen took them away from four of 
her grandchildren, saying it was “for their own 
good”, while in Copenhagen, Crown Prince Frederik 
and his wife, Princess Mary, ferry their young 
children to state school by cargo bike. Writes 
Baker: “You can never imagine this normality, 
that informality, with the British royal family.”
Here, our equivalents have the use of 50 
residences, estates totalling 250,000 acres – 
among them the well known like Buckingham Palace, 
Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle, Clarence 
House, St James’s Palace, Balmoral, Sandringham, 
Holyrood, Gatcombe Park, Highgrove, Royal Lodge, 
Bagshot Park and Thatched House Lodge, but also 
other Palladian houses and farms.
Included in the royal collection, too, are the 
“grace-and-favour” apartments for servants and 
former staff and anyone else the King wants to 
put up. At the last public estimate, there were 
272 of those alone. But that figure is 
cautionary. Because we simply do not know.
[]

2
The bill for maintaining the UK royal family ‘is 
undoubtedly much higher than that of any other European monarchy’ (AFP/Getty)
Taking the royal family forward is Prince 
William. PR-savvy and closely in tune with the 
zeitgeist, William and his wife, Catherine, are 
not afraid to use the media when it suits them to 
publicly voice their concerns and share personal 
information. But, thanks to Andrew, they, too, 
are in a bind. While William has indicated his 
desire for a slimmed-down monarchy, presumably 
akin to those Scandi models, he runs the risk of 
splitting his own family, of casting some 
relations into the wilderness, reducing them to commoners.
Ejection brings with it the threat of a royal 
turning rogue. William and Catherine have endured 
that with Harry and Meghan; this could spark a 
repeat – or repeats – and heap even more damage on the institution.
Prior to the latest escalation of the Andrew 
scandal, William kept his tax affairs secret, 
unlike the King. When the King was heir to the 
throne, his office outlined the figure that 
Charles had voluntarily paid in tax. But for the 
last two years, William has refused to reveal his 
own figure. The Duchies of Cornwall and 
Lancaster, which are now his personal property, 
will not say what William pays in tax on the 
surplus profits he receives from the sprawling 
estates spread across many English counties.
While the latest Duchy of Cornwall accounts 
showed the estate made a profit of £22.9m in its 
last financial year, William cannot be made to 
disclose how much tax he pays – unlike other 
bodies, the royal household is not subject to the 
same Freedom of Information Act regulations. All 
his private secretary has said is that “the 
Prince of Wales pays the highest rate of income tax”. But we do not know.
[]

2
The Waleses would appear to be the best chance of 
taking the royal family forward, but there are 
also questions around their financial interests (Getty)
Similarly, the crown estate is keen to stress 
that William and Kate are paying “market rent” on 
Forest Lodge, their new “forever” home. 
Independent valuers from Hamptons and Savills 
estate agents were appointed to value the 
property, and the couple received independent 
legal and property advice, as did the crown estate.
These bland explanations may satisfy some, but 
there will be vocal critics for whom they will 
not suffice. Andrew’s troubles have ensured there 
are more of them than ever before, and this time, 
their concerns cannot simply be dismissed.
A period of painful disclosure lies ahead.
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