I don't understand the fuss about Andrew's living arrangements

[Wookiefiend]

I think he's an odious man and the full force of the law should be thrown at him, but I don't understand why Royal Lodge is such an issue.

He doesn't get any taxpayer funding and has apparently paid £1m up front plus £7.5m in renovations required by the lease, so he's hardly living there rent free (as is often reported).

It's unfair that so much wealth sits with so few, and that they so often turn out to be awful, but as it stands he does have (inherited?) money and has paid to live in the house. Or is the going rate for such a property more than £8.5m rent?

Not really fair on the people of Tower Hamlets! And I say that as a former resident (although not in a council flat).

Good financial breakdown here: https://www.itv.com/news/2025-10-21/the-mystery-behind-prince-andrews-finances

@Bagsintheboot

I see Andrew’s peppercorn rent for his mansion as a bit of a distraction from :
-Epstein and Andrew
-the Chinese link with Andrew / trade envoy abuses

Why did the Windsors do nothing when they knew all about it 10 years ago ?
Now they are pretending to be shocked

Shocked the plebs finally found out more like

And where did her “private wealth” come from? The history of that is quite eye opening. Her wealth was protected from inheritance tax too. That’s done in order to protect the monarchy from going bankrupt and thus protect the nation. Not sure paying for Andrew’s house counts as protecting the nation.

In any event, Royal Lodge is an old, creaky, draughty place which largely in a shit state of repair. I doubt Andrew can afford the upkeep, and the Crown Estate will eventually have to pay for repairs. He should have been turfed out and made to live in Frogmore, but he refused.

But, what’s done is done. I guess whichever residence he is in, it would cause issues. I guess the taxpayer angle is, someone could be renting out the property and paying full market value to the crown estate, but realistically, for security concerns, who could that be?

Royal Lodge would never be on the open market to compare for rent though because of its proximity to royal residents and the castle.

It’s a very large property and who would live there? Charles won’t, William has a new home in Windsor, William’s children are too young, Harry wouldn’t be appropriate and lives overseas anyway, Anne is happy with her home and the same for Edward. It’s not an appropriate property for Anne’s children or Edward’s. With the slimmed down monarchy there is a genuine risk of it sitting unoccupied. It could be used as office space for the royal family but not rented outside of that. Again, with the slimmed down monarchy and the amount of office space they already have, it’s not needed.

Just watching this when I happened upon this thread. An interesting look at Andy's behaviour.