This summer, the duchy of Cornwall got a new-look website with a bold statement of intent at the top: \u201cWe\u2019re on a mission to become a world-leading impact organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Updating the website will have been the easiest part of that mission. Upgrading hundreds of ageing, mostly rural, rented cottages, farmhouses and country houses will be one of the hardest.<\/p>\n
For many tenants, it will be long overdue. One, who is in failing health and struggling to heat a mostly uninsulated home where the only source of warmth is coal-fired stoves, said: \u201cThis place is not up to the standards of the 20th century, let alone the 21st. It\u2019s archaic. It needs to be upgraded but I don\u2019t think they want to spend the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is money. Established in 1337 to provide an income to male heirs to the throne, the duchy of Cornwall is unburdened by many of the taxes faced by other landlords, such as corporation tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. It enjoys profit margins of about 60% and pays out more than \u00a320m a year to the monarch\u2019s eldest son.<\/p>\n
King Charles with his eldest son, Prince William. Photograph: WPA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Changes are afoot: the duchy announced earlier this year that it would be selling off 20% of the estate over the next decade and investing \u00a3500m in local communities, housing and environmental projects.<\/p>\n
Prince William, four years into his tenure as the 25th duke of Cornwall, has promised to transform his inheritance: \u201cThere is so much good we can do. I\u2019m trying to make sure I\u2019m prioritising stuff that\u2019s going to make people\u2019s lives, living in those areas, better.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the same tenant is not convinced he will benefit. \u201cI\u2019m sure this is one of the properties that he will sell and I don\u2019t know what will happen to me after that,\u201d he said. \u201cWill they have to find somewhere else for me or will I just be turfed out?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the dilemma facing many duchy tenants, most of whom are reluctant to speak out, in parts of the country where the housing crisis is being keenly felt.<\/p>\n
Many properties in these areas \u2013 including those owned by the duchies \u2013 have been turned into holiday lets. Combined with an abundance of second homes, there are few other rental properties available for tenants.<\/p>\n
At first glance, some of the duchy cottages look idyllic. But many were built cheaply, over the centuries, for the agricultural working poor. The older ones are stone, the relatively newer ones typically a single skin of brick. They are often clustered around farms, but some are the towns and villages dotted throughout the duchy\u2019s heartlands in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Dartmoor.<\/p>\n
A former Duchy of Lancaster property sold last year, which was rated G in 2020. Photograph: Nick Sommerlad<\/p>\n
Time and again the same complaints surface \u2013 the duchy doesn\u2019t like to spend money, repairs take an age, friends are envious, but the homes are cold, winters hard.<\/p>\n
They are not the kind of properties that make it into the duchy\u2019s glossy annual reports, which under William have been renamed \u201cimpact reports\u201d. The homes that feature tend to be the newer-built developments at Poundbury in Dorset and Nansledan in Cornwall.<\/p>\n
Commercial investments now make up over half of the duchy\u2019s income, but the homes it owns will only become a bigger headache as standards for rental properties are raised.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine\/REX\/ShutterstockPoundbury and the surrounding fields. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
In response to the Guardian\u2019s investigation, the duchy of Cornwall said it had a \u201cunique portfolio, including many historic buildings located in isolated rural and island locations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst this confers a special character, it also brings some unique challenges which we have started to address systematically through our retrofit programme,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise that these challenges mean work does not always happen as fast as we would like, but we will continue to work closely with our tenants to identify effective and practical energy-efficiency improvements as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of the previously announced \u00a3500m investment over the next decade, the duchy of Cornwall told the Guardian that \u201can additional \u00a350m is planned for improving the condition and efficiency of our existing properties\u201d.<\/p>\n
The duchy added that it had spent \u00a311m on home improvements since 2022, and in the past year had delivered 150 \u201cmodern, energy-efficient homes, all of which are EPC A or B\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, in response to follow-up questions from the Guardian, it confirmed that only six of the new properties were duchy private rents, with most having been sold.<\/p>\n
Similar problems face the duchy of Lancaster, established a century later and which covers 18,000 hectares (44,000 acres), stretching from northern England down to Northamptonshire and into parts of London.<\/p>\n
The king inherited this duchy on Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s death in 2022, along with the smaller and more recent Sandringham estate, acquired by the royal family in the 19th century. Sandringham does not publish its accounts.<\/p>\n
The duchy of Lancaster said it placed great importance on \u201cbeing a responsible landlord\u201d. \u201cAny tenant with concerns is encouraged to contact us directly and can be assured we will address these issues promptly and constructively,\u201d a spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last year, the duchy of Lancaster has invested more than \u00a33m in residential property repairs and upgrades as part of our ongoing commitment to provide well-maintained homes compliant with all legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst improving the energy efficiency of some historic buildings is challenging, we continue to work to improve their EPC ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crumbling brickwork at the former duchy of Lancaster property. Photograph: Nick SommerladBlack mould on the ceiling at the property. Photograph: Nick Sommerlad<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said Sandringham \u201chas a mixture of property and tenancy types, which are fully compliant with MEES regulations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to invest significantly in an ongoing programme of maintenance and improvement works on all properties, including those out of scope of the regulations, to upgrade energy efficiency across the estate,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we do not comment on individual cases, these regulations do not apply to every property on the estate and exemptions are necessary on a small number of properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three estates, collectively worth well over \u00a32bn, are among the nation\u2019s biggest and highest-profile landlords, with more than 1,000 rental homes between them.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Earle, a knowledge lawyer at Farrer & Co, which acts for the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, recently wrote about changes in legislation that \u201cmay feel unduly hard on owners of older, rural and often energy-inefficient properties\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earle was not talking of the royals, but said: \u201cThe irony is that, while these are precisely the sort of properties in which people dream of living, it is becoming increasingly hard to let them \u2013 and nigh-on impossible to make them comply with modern standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
A duchy of Cornwall spokesperson said it was unable to confirm the accuracy of our findings because the Guardian did not provide the estate with a list of properties we had inspected. Such details were not provided in order to protect the tenants who spoke to us on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This summer, the duchy of Cornwall got a new-look website with a bold statement of intent at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-739577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}