A NEW law that “will make King Charles many times richer” has been condemned by campaigners.
It comes after the House of Lords was told yesterday that the King gave his consent to the Crown Estate Bill.
The independent commercial organisation manages the broad range of Crown assets worth an estimated £16.5 billion, including large swathes of land, historic estates and nearly all the seabed around the UK, with profits paid to the Treasury.
The amount generated is used to determine the size of the sovereign grant paid to the King.
The proposed legislation aims to reform the Crown Estate Act 1961, which established the body, widening its investment and borrowing powers.
At third reading of the draft law in the Lords, peers heard the monarch had “consented to place his interests, so far as they are affected by the bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the bill”.
In response to the King giving his consent to the new law, Lord Berkeley said: “I was very pleased to see that His Majesty the King has given consent to a bill which will make him many times richer over the course of the next decade or so – that is good.”
Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchy group Republic, was less pleased but not surprised.
"[King Charles] will always consent to any bill that will profit the royals,” he told The National.
“The question is whether any chance exemptions or privileges were demanded or given in the bill before that consent was given."
The parliamentary convention under which Charles gave his consent, King’s Consent, is sought whenever a bill affects the royal family’s interests.
Critics allege that, while the royal family may never formally withhold its consent, the procedure leaves legislation open to undue vetting and pressure.
For example, in 2022, a Scottish Government memo obtained by the Guardian revealed that “it is almost certain” draft laws have been secretly changed to secure the then Queen’s approval.
Smith told The National that the consent rule needs to be scrapped.
“There's to be complete transparency in any communication between government and palace, and the consent rule needs to go,” he said.
The legislation now heads to the Commons, where MPs will consider a demand by peers for a crackdown on environmentally damaging salmon farms, which it is warned threaten the wild species with extinction.
Earlier this month, the Lords inflicted a heavy defeat on the Government in backing a cross-party move that would force the Crown Estate to revoke or refuse licences to bad operators that harm the marine habitat and wildlife.
However, while the legislation extends to the whole of the UK, the management of the Crown Estate in Scotland, where most fish farming takes place, is a devolved matter.
