Prince Andrew has not paid rent on his Royal Lodge for more than two decades, according to the tenancy agreement released by the crown estate.
The agreement, which was sent to The Independent, states that Andrew paid £1m for the lease, along with at least £7.5m for refurbishments in 2005. He has paid only “one peppercorn (if demanded)” in rent per year since 2003.
The revelation has prompted renewed calls for transparency over the terms of the royal’s residence, amid growing calls for Prince Andrew to be stripped of his dukedom following another week of scandal for the beleaguered royal.
Andrew and his family have a 75-year lease of the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge in Windsor, allowing them to live in the property until 2078. The latest revelation will pile pressure on the scandal-mired royal to give up the Royal Lodge, which sits on an estate of 98 acres in Windsor Great Park and is leased from the crown estate.
The prince announced on Friday that he will no longer be known as the Duke of York, following continued accusations about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Chair of the Treasury select committee Dame Meg Hillier suggested that parliament would have an interest in looking into any aspects that involve taxpayer money.
She told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday that “where money flows and particularly where taxpayers’ money is involved or taxpayers’ interests are involved, parliament has a responsibility to have a light shone upon that and we need to have answers”.
Meanwhile, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday that the prince’s lease is a “matter for His Majesty the King” but said that the King has acted “decisively”.
Speaking to Sky News, business secretary Peter Kyle said: “Those are matters for His Majesty the King. The lease is with the crown estate and those are matters for the King. And I think we’ve seen in recent days, the King has acted pretty decisively when these things get on to his desk.”
MPs are continuing to voice concerns over Prince Andrew, with one senior Tory saying on Tuesday that the King’s brother should lead an “entirely private life”.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Breakfast that “the public are sick of Prince Andrew and the damage that he’s done to the reputation of our royal family and this country”.
Meanwhile, the SNP have lodged an early day motion calling for the “government to take legislative steps to remove the dukedom granted to Prince Andrew”.
As of Tuesday morning, the motion has 13 supporters, all of whom are SNP or Plaid Cymru MPs.
Early day motions are submitted for debate in the Commons, but have no date fixed to them, and as a result, very few end up being discussed in the House.
Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir is set to be released on Tuesday and contains more on allegations that they had sex on three occasions. Prince Andrew has always stringently denied allegations involving Giuffre.
On Monday, there were demands among some MPs for parliament to remove his titles, while pressure was also growing on the estate to reveal more about the tenancy agreement amid heightening calls for him to move out.
Norman Baker, a royal author and former Liberal Democrat minister, said details of the contract should be made public to see if there is a possibility he could be moved out.
He told The Times: “All leases have some kind of break clause, so the public must know how he has been able to remain there, and on what terms he could be forced to leave.”
Speaking to the same outlet, royal author Andrew Lownie said: “I think it is important for transparency that the full details of that arrangement are made public and why the property – in effect public property – was only offered to him.”
In response to an inquiry on the issue, the crown estate sent The Independent a copy of the lease struck in 2003, on which Andrew paid £1m, and was required to carry out £7.5m-worth of refurbishment on the grade II-listed property.
The contract can be forfeited by the estate if any rent is not paid for 21 days, or if there is any breach of a tenant covenant, the contract states.
The document also states that the tenant must keep and preserve the grounds in good and proper order, and that the building be repainted every five years. The crown estate also has the right to inspect “upon reasonable notice”.
Some details about the agreement were already known through a National Audit Office (NAO) report in 2005, which said the decision on the lease was made as it was “appropriate in view of the overriding need to maintain close management control over Royal Lodge”.
The report said Andrew approached the crown estate over the property following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth’s mother.
At the weekend, ex-royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the BBC that Prince Andrew had a “cast-iron” deal to stay at Royal Lodge.
She said: “Should he be dislodged from Royal Lodge, where he lives, this large house in Windsor, well, he has a pretty cast-iron tenancy agreement and that is difficult, the King has been trying to get him out.
“Andrew likes us all to believe he has a tendency to be rather too honourable. Well, I do think the honourable thing might be to say, I will relinquish not only my titles... but I will also relinquish this rather large home. But I don’t see that happening.”
The crown estate said it made the decision to share a copy of the lease on Monday, adding that the document contained information already available through the Land Registry and the NAO report.
The only exception was a “schedule of dilapidation”, it said, which it was now seeking to confirm if it could be shared without breaching security considerations.
It said the £7.5m in refurbishments, as set out in the contract, were completed in 2005.
Prince Andrew told to leave public life forever after ‘embarrassing’ royals: Latest
All the major Prince Andrew revelations from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir
Virginia Giuffre ‘would view Prince Andrew giving up titles as a victory’
UK elderly population at record high as more men live to very old age
Johnson insists there had been planning for Covid school closures
William ‘not satisfied with Andrew outcome and will ban him from coronation’
