Duchy of Lancaster Theft

[Roussette]

Just when I thought I could not be more taken aback at some of the practices undertaken by our Monarchy, and the sheer greed.

I then read this article. Bottom line.... anyone who dies intestate in Lancashire, and parts of Merseyside, Grtr Manchester, Cheshire and Cumbria... their assets are scooped up by the Duchy of Lancaster who has collected more than £60M over the last 10 years. Not charity as is the norm.. but into the pocket of our King You need to read the article to see what he actually does with it and how it benefits his personal income.

The article explains it well and will answer any questions and queries about it.

Someone yesterday accused me of 'despising' the RF. I disagreed but I am beginning to wonder if that poster was right. Especially when I read something like this.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/revealed-king-charles-secretly-profiting-from-the-assets-of-dead-citizens?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Or just get rid of this perk altogether! All areas of England should have the same rule, all of it going to the state. This is an outdated ridiculously greedy thing and its obscene they actually go hunting for money from the public like this. Most of the time collecting small sums. Imagine being a billionaire and hiring a firm to search for these small sums from thousands of people.... its obscene!

Nothing to do with the threat but I have a feeling there are quite a lot of Republicans working very closely to the Royal Family. I can imagine the Royal Family knows who they are too.

Charles tried to get his polo expenses included as non taxable expenses and I’ve written before about how he was including Camillas staff clothes jewelry and horses as part of expenses ( she was his girlfriend ) - until a government commitee put a stop to it

The Windsors are arch grifters and will never pay their dues until forced to The little they do offer in ‘voluntary ‘ tax is an insult . It should not be ‘voluntary ‘ for a start.

@Serenster I have no idea why you have included information from the solicitor general. He clearly says he has no power over the Duchys . That’s the bloody point !

And if you read the article , they say there are accounts - but they do not answer tue key questions
There’s that ‘ accurate but misleading ‘ again!

This won’t go away .

@travelnorth
What do you mean?

The Windsors want out lol?

As a PP suggested, put the money to good use in local deprived areas in the Duchy, set up Community funding, do good with it... as opposed to updating a duchy owned property, then increasing the rent, or putting in a new boiler in a commercial property.

So here’s an example of what the Duchy of Cornwall Benevolent Fund actually did with t money. They made a donation (and their accounts show it used some of their funding reserves) to the The Cornwall Community Foundation
Since March 2020, the Cornwall Community Foundation has distributed 321 grants to 154 groups. The awarded organisations include foodbanks, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, community centres, youth projects, mental health and bereavement services and groups that help victims of violence and abuse.

(isn’t that exactly what you’re saying should happen…)

Also, that’s the Duchy of Cornwall, which has been under Charles’ stewardship for decades. He only acquired an interest in the Duchy of Lancaster in September last year. I suppose it would be reasonable to give him a period of time to make similar changes to that organisation as he id in Cornwall? Not that anyone here is remotely minded to be reasonable.

Serenster I have no idea why you have included information from the solicitor general. He clearly says he has no power over the Duchys . That’s the bloody point !

I was pointing out that there are three bodies that deal with Bona Vacantia:

The Solicitor General
the Duchy of Lancaster
The Duchy of Cornwall

All of them are transparent about it.

he was including Camillas staff clothes jewelry and horses as part of expenses ( she was his girlfriend )

That started in 2005. By 2005 Camilla had been divorced for 10 years and Charles 9. The Queen had included Camilla in her social circle from 2000 and Camilla had been living at Clarence House from 2003. They were clearly life partners, so I fail to see why it’s shocking that her expenses were included with his own. Meghan’s expenses for public appearances were covered by Prince Charles before she and Harry were married, too.

@Serenster You clearly haven’t read the article
The whole point is that the Duchy of Lancaster is not transparent .
Just saying ‘ accounts are signed off ‘ is simply not good enough when we have the solicitor general making clear he has no power over them .

Again you mention Duchy of Cornwall.
We are talking about and the article and thread are about the Duchy of Lancaster

Im sure the Duchy of Cornwall will have plenty to uncover too but it’s not in the article

They are just a bunch of grifters.

I’m glad more and more is being uncovered .

@Serenster
”so I fail to see why it’s shocking that her expenses were included with his”

Well what a pity that you weren’t around to put the House of Commons committee right!

They saw plenty wrong with it and put a stop to it

Wait a minute - could this be yet another ‘accurate but misleading ‘ example ??

Charles can pay for whomever he likes - I believe the objection was that he was not declaring the money he spent on Camilla as taxable - it was being included in what he wished to have ‘excluded’

@Serenster I get your point re Duchy of Cornwall. It’s true that Charles has made steps to be more transparent in his accounting - it will be interesting to see if he does the same for the Duchy of Lancaster.

If all the money raised through unclaimed estates goes to charity (after running expenses) from the Duchy of Cornwall already then that’s great, I hope they end up doing the same with the other Duchy.

My preference would be to be to make sure that the way the money is used would be chosen by the communities themselves.

Both duchies have long claimed that once costs are deducted, the money is distributed to charities. The Duchy of Lancaster’s website states that “proceeds” of bona vacantia go to three registered charities after costs are deducted. However, its accounts suggest only 15% of the £61m it has collected in bona vacantia over the last decade has been donated to charities.

Just to clarify the figures for the Duchy of Lancaster, which is the focus of the article in the OP.

For the sake of clarity it was the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons who drew attention to the ‘dodgy’ practices ( Camillas expenses included , polo expenses etc ) at the Duchy of Cornwall .

I know we are talking about Lancaster but that public accounts committee was the first look at the Duchys accounts in - wait for it - 600 years!

And there are a few people who think we shouldn’t be outraged at Charles taking all the bona vacantia money ?!

It ALL needs reformed starting with their finances .

re Duchy of Cornwall, a 2020 article says: Since 2009, just £1.9m has been left for charitiesand recent beneficiaries of the Benevolent Fund include the Cornwall Red Squirrel Project, The Salvation Army and Truro Cathedral.

Its nice and all, but I think the point is, why should any member of the royal family, decide which charities deserve this money?

What I took from several articles is that before they changed the rules, the money went to the royals to spend on whatever they wanted. In recent year they decided to change it so it was put to use for maintenance of duchy properties and that was it. It would be nice if Charles changed it over to charities at some point but I can't get het up about the current system. The royals are hardly splashing the money out on jewels.

Because if you left it to the government it would get lost in the ether and charities wouldn't see it at all.

Because if you left it to the government it would get lost in the ether and charities wouldn't see it at all. Exactly.

My preference would be to be to make sure that the way the money is used would be chosen by the communities themselves

And mine.

It's no good saying but but but... look what they did! It should all go to local communities.

Not sure why people are so surprised by all this

It's lord and serfdom in the UK still

Then you have William cutting ribbons in some shitty town with his fake grin

Just saying ‘ accounts are signed off ‘ is simply not good enough when we have the solicitor general making clear he has no power over them .

This is a complete non sequitur. The Treasury Solicitor has no power over most of the country. Does that mean there is a problem with that? What do you think they do?

The Duchies’ accounts have been audited and signed off by wholly independent audit firms who owe public interest duties and are themselves regulated. That’s good enough for global corporations and stock exchange listing rules. Not for you, though…

The royals are hardly splashing the money out on jewels

No need

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/14/jewellery-worth-hundreds-of-millions-in-the-kings-private-collection

My preference would be to be to make sure that the way the money is used would be chosen by the communities themselves

And do you have a say over what HMT does with all the Bona Vacantia they collect? (i.e. the vast majority of it)

It upsets me that William and Charles claim to be nature lovers yet they are building housing estates all over Kent.
Don’t they have enough money?

Roussette - luckily, thanks to the fact that inheritance tax will need to be paid on the value of those jewels if Charles wants to leave them to anyone but William, they are highly likely to remain held solely by the Monarch for the foreseeable future. And then loaned out to be worn by individual family members, as is currently the case. Unless, like Queen Victoria did with some of her collection, Charles designates them as part of the Royal Collection. In which case like many the Royal Palaces, they will belong to the nation.