William to sell off parts of Duchy of Cornwall "for positive impact"

[BasiliskStare]

On the face of it (& I have read the article once so reserve the right to change my mind , be persuaded by those more knowledgeable than me or by other arguments ) this looks like a good thing - or maybe a good start. I'm sure W can manage nicely with the income from 80% of. £1bn Duchy 😊

I don't think this excuses him from not being transparent about finances , but am I being naive to think this is edging towards a good thing? I know there is an argument the Duchy is ill-gotten gains he shouldn't have in the first place. I'm quite pleased to see affordable housing in London referred to , which having a DS who lives in London , I'm very aware of. That's obviously personal to me though.

Anyway - for what it's worth - here's the article

archive.ph/qi1V9

Positive to who?

To the tenants who would rather own their own property than have William as a landlord. Freehold is always preferable

Just concerned as to who would want to own Dartmoor Prison, it's in a dreadful state. It needs shedloads spending on it

Pretty sure the majority of them can’t afford to buy so they’re being turfed out.

lol William should ever be so glad for the sycophantic media coverage he receives

I wasn't impressed by his reduced transparency with his taxes (compared to his father) so I'm going to reserve judgement. I'll happily give him credit if this turns out to be a good thing.

Who receives the money if/when he sells?

This looks to me like he'll be selling off the parts that aren't going to be making him money as a property developer.

He's aiming to build 12,000 more homes on Duchy land, so that'll make him a goodly amount.

There have been complaints and objections to housing projects that are already happening because of their scale.

William's dedicated to being a property developer that much is clear. Any other developer is prone to being criticised but I'm sure William's fans will be along soon to commend him!

The BBC reports on it, too.

Prince William selling 20% of duchy property for housing and nature projects - BBC News https://share.google/mBl01gMNuByJNtVqF

I think i'd be more impressed if he gave the land away to organisations working in this space, rather than him selling and getting a profit/ revenue from it - or sell it and then pass on the revenue to nature, housing organisations etc

From the BBC article it seems that he is changing the focus of the Duchy and trying to benefit the communities affected. Of course he is still going to make money, IIRC there are strict rules in place to ensure that the Duchy doesn't lose out and that's what landowners do, make money. But if they are changing so that the money comes from projects that also benefit the community that seems a positive change. Time will tell.

What you you mean - he published his income taxes a couple of weeks ago. He paid £7 million in income tax which puts him in the top 0.002% of UK taxpayers.

He pays £300,000 a year to rent his house in Windsor plus paid personally for the renovations to the property

What more do you want to know?

This ^ 100%

Charles always bought and sold a lot of Duchy property and I think it makes sense to potentially sell some of the commercial property holdings such as the Waitrose Distribution centre in Milton Keynes or the Holiday Inn in Reading.

I think that it's positive that he announced the plan to sell some of his properties to invest in affordable housing for local communities who are so often priced out by second home owners/Airbnb investors.

To be reinvested in local communities including 4,000 affordable homes.

The problem is that he has identified the need to invest in five core "heartlands": Cornwall, Bath, Dartmoor, the Isles of Scilly, and Kennington in south London. However he may want to sell property elsewhere to fund the projects - giving away commercial property in Milton Keynes does nothing for communities in Cornwall and will likely be sold on to a developer.

This is where I need those with more knowledge . As I read it at the moment he is going to sell 20% of the Duchy and the proceeds from that will go towards projects inc affordable housing inter alia. So his slice of the Duchy ends up smaller and the money goes towards other projects, he does not benefit from the money . I may well be wrong here. As others have said , time will tell , but that understanding was why I thought it might be a good thing. My understanding may well not be correct - I would love to hear from those who know better.

ETA - I am not sure whether "the heartlands" is where he will sell , or invest and whether he might sell in other areas and will they reap some reward. So many questions. I will take an interest in this , ongoing , though.

Hmm. A small town I used to live in, and the farms and farmland round about, is part of the Duchy, apparently worth £1 billion. There is much consternation about the news that people are going to have to buy their houses and farms that they currently rent, or see them sold to others if those farmers don't have the odd couple of million lying about. Also, no-one knows who will own the town hall and other public buildings, playing fields, etc.
Finally, the Department of Justice is still paying £1.5million per year to rent Dartmoor prison, a load of dilapidated empty buildings with radon gas from the Duchy, and the prison is unlikely to reopen. (Tied into a contract? IDK but it seems immoral that ultimately it's wasting taxpayers' money.)
He might have good intentions, but there are currently some very unhappy and insecure people out there.

@AgentPidge Ah yes, William pocketing 1.5 million from an unusable prison. He’s forced to take our money - positively forced I tell you ! Impossible for him to return it to the taxpayer…

Anyway back in the real world read Norman Baker’s latest ‘ Royal mint, national
debt’ . He advises taking Williams promises re good causes with a ‘Siberian mine of salt’

Throw in a few buzzwords about ‘nature’ and the royalists seal clap but there’s no real information here . All new housing must have a % of affordable builds . That’s the law . How much is William doing beyond the minimum ? How much will he be skimming off the top when the farm land is sold to developers ?

If we are to tolerate a situation where William is exempt from certain laws and taxation the very least we can expect in return is clarity and detail.
We get neither .
It’s a disgrace .
And so are we for continuing to allow the Windsors to rip off this struggling country .

No he didn't, the Times did an investigative report and he was under huge public pressure.
He published nothing. Exact amount is not known

7 million, proportionate to his wealth seems paltry to me.

But maybe I don't understand these things.

I wonder though, if they compared the average percentage of tax paid vs ration of wealth - would he fall in the top 0.002%?

I bet in those terms, I pay more than him.

I bet I don't cost nearly as much either.

@Lunde I was referring to a lack of transparency since he inherited the duchy. It's been 3 and a half years and the information in your post was recently released. Prior to that, no info... Charles released the info annually and it was surprising when William declined to follow his example.

I’d add that when it comes to greedy William and his take from the taxpayer - it is journalist’s estimates that we are referring to .
There is next to no transparency- as others have noted . With breathtaking arrogance, William closed the books . Charles had allowed a greater degree of transparency.
We are told ‘up to 7 million’ is paid - yeah well we all pay ‘up to’ 7 million don’t we ?

‘Up to’ reads like someone is trying to polish this issue
And as we know William does not own the land - this in fact is the Windsor argument for not paying due taxes - how is he selling what he does not own? Does a board approve this? Has the board changed ? Who appoints the board ?

Any initiative which provides affordable homes for local families so they do not have to leave their communities, is a good thing.
Low cost tenancies are better than freehold because then they won't end up as holiday homes or as high-cost rentals within 10 years.
I welcome it.

This is a slush fund for William and the ‘good causes’ tag is thrown in as PR polish

The vast majority of the property development will not be affordable homes .
William will be much richer as a result and his gross wealth is all that matters here .

William pays no capital gains or corporation tax so building homes over farm land will mean the low income farm land ( for William) will become high income property empires ( tax free for William)

The farmers being told to find the money to buy or be turfed off the land must be stressed and anxious. What has William’s fake ‘mental health ‘ concerned face got to say about that?

how is he selling what he does not own? Good question. When it suits King and heir, they own them. But not when it comes to paying Corporation tax or Capital Gains tax

Does a board approve this? Yes Because William is the Chairman. Despite government oversight, I imagine they rubber stamp everything

Has the board changed ? Who appoints the board ? William appointed two old pals to the Council as soon as he took over

No.

Charles did not sell off vast amounts of farmland when he had the Duchy of Cornwall I’m the last person to defend a Windsor but your attempt to align Charles with William’s greed here is simply wrong . Yes Charles makes huge profits but he had a genuine interest in farming and sought to protect tenant farmers as far as I know .

William is selling farmland that has been part of the Duchy since the 1300s! Where are the royalists up in arms about this? This is the heritage you claim the Windsors protect .

No doubt the Duchy of Cornwall has a green and pleasant image with William in a flat cap and a Barbour . PR . This is so blatant . It’s a sell off to enrich William. Will you be back in 2040 to check how many affordable homes were built?

BTW re the ‘nature ‘ buzzword , what happened to the children’s nature centre which closed in Windsor when W and K took a land grab for their 5 th ‘forever’ home? Has it re opened as promised? We were told the closure was temporary