Andrew paid £1m to lease the 30-room mansion in Great Windsor Park for 75 years as part of his tenancy contract
There have been calls to evict Prince Andrew from his 30-room mansion, the Royal Lodge, after it was reported that he has not paid rent on it for two decades.
Andrew has leased the Royal Lodge from the UK state’s property empire, the crown estate, since 2003. As part of this deal, he pays the crown estate rent of “one peppercorn (if demanded) per annum”. This is a historical term and does not mean he pays an actual peppercorn. This formulation of words helps to make the lease agreement a legal contract, but it is just symbolic. In reality, he pays no rent.
Yes. He was required to spend £7.5m on refurbishing the property as part of the original 2003 agreement with the crown estate. He also made a one-off payment of £1m to lease the property for 75 years. The terms of the deal, including the peppercorn rent, were set out in a 2005 report by the National Audit Office, the official public spending watchdog.
There has been persistent criticism that he has got a very favourable deal. The crown estate denies this. It concluded that a member of the royal family needed to live in the property because of its “sensitive location” within Windsor Great Park as well as “security concerns” about the family’s access to the private Royal Chapel, which lies within the boundary of the Royal Lodge.
