Prince William‘s Duchy of Cornwall has been accused of acting like a ‘rogue landlord’ as furious tenants claim they are living in freezing homes riddled with mould.
Scores of rented properties owned by the £1 billion business empire don’t meet the minimum energy efficiency threshold that landlords are required to meet, according to an investigation.
Some have no central heating causing the temperature to plummet during the winter months, while one is known to only have a wood burner and coal fire that heat just two rooms.
The royal estate is owned by the heir to the throne and has more than 600 rental properties, with it raking in £23.6 million worth of profits in the last financial year.
William, 42, is understood to pay income tax on the full amount, although annual accounts published in July did not specify how much he paid.
Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall has been accused of acting like a ‘rogue landlord’ as furious tenants claim they are living in freezing homes riddled with mould
Brown stains can be seen on the ceiling of one of the Duchy of Cornwall’s properties in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary
The more than a year’s probe by Channel 4 Dispatches with the Mirror newspaper found one in seven of the 500 Duchy residential rental properties identified have low Energy Performance Certificate ratings.
Of those, 50 were rated F and 20 rated G, including six properties with the lowest EPC score of one point out of 100.
Since April 2020, properties covered by the minimum energy efficiency standards regulations can not be let if the rating is below E – unless they have a valid exemption.
Landlords do not have to pay more than £3,500 per property to make energy efficiency improvements.
The Duchy’s private estate was established in 1337 with many of the buildings more than a century old.
In photos published by the Mirror, the corner of one room and the back of the wallpaper is covered in black mould. In another, brown stains can be seen on the ceiling.
One tenant, speaking on the condition of anonymity, has mould appearing on soft furnishings and clothes, but claims the Duchy will not fully insulate the property because of the cost.
‘But you don’t want to say anything against your landlord for fear of eviction,’ they told the Mirror. ‘There could be consequences.’
Another has been told their home is uninhabitable as others use blankets to fight off the bitter cold.
One tenant claims they weren’t allowed to have double glazing because ‘Prince Charles doesn’t like it’.
‘Well he doesn’t have to live here,’ they snapped back.
One property is known to only have a wood burner and coal fire that is used to heat just two rooms
An investigation found one in seven of the 500 identified Duchy residential rental properties have low Energy Performance Certificate ratings
A spokesman for the Duchy of Cornwall said William (pictured in September attending the Homelessness: Reframed exhibition in London) committed to an expansive transformation of the Duchy
One told the Dispatches programme: ‘It gets miserably cold in winter, I can only heat two rooms in my home. The Duchy does not understand.’
Another said: ‘The house is cold, and it is a struggle but there is nowhere else to live here… When the wind blows the curtains start swinging. There’s no heating upstairs at all.’
Claire Williams, 53, lived in a former farmhouse in Essex where she says she struggled with cold and damp throughout her two decades living there.
She was evicted last week over rent arrears dating back to 2005, which she disputes, but before then had allowed the Mirror inside the home in order to take photos.
One snap showed black mould caked on the skirting board and bottom half a wall under peeling white paint.
‘I’ve complained about it for 21 years,’ she said. ‘The repaint was done about a week before I moved in so you couldn’t see it.’
MailOnline understands a surveyor visited the property in May and found it had not been heated or ventilated properly.
Jonathan Bean, of pressure group Fuel Poverty Action, said: ‘It’s a disgrace that a billion pound royal estate appears to be acting like a rogue landlord.’
A Duchy of Cornwall spokesman told MailOnline: ‘The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate with a commercial imperative which we achieve alongside our commitment to restoring the natural environment and generating positive social impact for our communities.’
In a short trailer released this week, Dispacthes said the Royal’s wealth is ‘shrouded in secrecy’
‘Prince William became Duke of Cornwall in September 2022 and since then has committed to an expansive transformation of the Duchy.
‘This includes a significant investment to make the estate net zero by the end of 2032, as well as establishing targeted mental health support for our tenants and working with local partners to help tackle homelessness in Cornwall.’
Last year, William received about £6 million from the Duchy because he became the Duke of Cornwall half way through the financial year after the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Duchy had also asked to retain an extra proportion for the day-to-day running of the estate.
Meanwhile, there were also revelations about King Charles making millions out of the cash-strapped NHS, according to a shocking investigation into secretive royal finances by Channel 4 and the Sunday Times.
The Duchy of Lancaster, a property empire which provides a private income to the monarch, is charging one NHS trust at least £11.4 million in rent to store its ambulances over the next 15 years.
Bombshell documents reveal the duchy is earning £830,000 a year from renting a two-storey warehouse to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London.
The unprecedented audit of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Prince of Wales’s private estate, shows taxpayers are shelling out millions every year to boost the wealth of the senior royals.
As well as the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, local authorities and other public bodies are swelling the coffers of the Duchies, a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation broadcast last night found.
Charities – even those where the King is patron – are also stumping up millions, the five-month investigation of more than 5,000 landholdings and properties shows.
Duchy money is private income for Charles and William on top of the Sovereign Grant, which will pay the Royal Family £132 million next year, up 50 per cent on this year.
The Duchies are run as commercial enterprises, but pay no capital gains tax nor corporation tax. Both Charles and William do pay income tax, but it is not clear how much.
Dame Margaret Hodge, former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, led calls for greater transparency of royal finances – and for the tax regime to be tightened up.
The Duchy of Lancaster, which last year generated £27.4 million for the King, and the Duchy of Cornwall are not required to pay business taxes.
Both estates claim they are not funded by the taxpayer, but the cache of documents obtained by Dispatches and the Sunday Times lay bare the huge income they receive from public services.
As reported in the Daily Mail, the Duchy of Cornwall said it is ‘a private estate with a commercial imperative… committed to restoring the natural environment’, and said it was ‘acting in a responsible and sustainable way’ on mining.
The Duchy of Lancaster said it ‘operates as a commercial company’ and ‘complies with all relevant UK legislation’.
