King Charles wants all royal family members to pay market rents to live in royal homes
The new king is only getting started with plans to save money, with more royals about facing eviction or hefty bills under his radical new plan.
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King Charles is about to swing the axe even further, this time cutting off family members who are getting “mates rates” on royal homes.
The new king has made no secret of the fact he wants a slimmed down monarchy. He has already evicted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from Frogmore Cootage, their British home on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
He is giving that home to disgraced Prince Andrew - who himself is being booted out of his beloved Royal Lodge mansion, the 30 room home he pays just A$460 a week for.
Next on his list are family members - both distanced relatives and working royals - who get subsidised rents to live in royal homes.
Two senior officials, Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Household, and the Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Michael Stevens, have been tasked to come up with a hit list of where savings can be made.
“It is not about cuts, it is about getting the best value for money from those on the payroll. Sometimes less is more,” a source told the London Evening Standard.
“The King is not some sort of housing association for distant relatives,” another source said.
The high profile eviction of Prince Harry and Ms Markle was “the tip of the iceberg”, with subsidised London flats going unless the occupants paid the going rate.
“Over time, that is going to change. Properties will be let at commercial rates going forward and to people outside the family. Where it is in a palace environment they will of course be security vetted,” the source told the Evening Standard.
The disgraced Duke of York, 63, reportedly told friends he received none of his mother’s estimated £650 million (A$1.2mn) fortune to help him rebuild his life.
Her legacy instead passed to King Charles, who is not by law required to pay tax on it — and is yet to give any to his siblings, fearing it may appear a tax dodge.
Prince Andrew’s siblings Princess Anne, 72, and Prince Edward, 59, are said to share “some resentment” at inheriting nothing from the Queen.
However, as working royals both receive handouts from the Sovereign Grant to cover their costs.