King Charles’ property empire earns £334,000 from housing benefit

T he King’s property empire has earned more than £334,000 in housing benefit since the pandemic, openDemocracy can reveal.

The Crown Estate, a £16bn land and property portfolio that helps to bankroll King Charles and the royal palaces, took the money after 14 of its housing tenants said they needed support covering their rent.

The payments were made between the start of the first lockdown in 2020 and the end of last year. Housing benefit can be available to people who are unemployed, on a low income or claiming other benefits – and is sometimes paid directly to their landlord.

Over the same period, the Crown Estate has slapped eviction notices or warnings on at least 31 tenants, according to figures obtained by openDemocracy.

Meanwhile, the royal property empire has been raking in money, having sold around £11.6m worth of residential properties since 2020 and increased its profits to £1.1bn in the last financial year.

Although it is run independently of the King, the Crown Estate contributes towards the financial support he gets to discharge his duties, known as the sovereign grant. This money is used to cover his staff costs, official receptions and upkeep of the royal palaces.

The Crown Estate’s increased profits over the last financial year mean the sovereign grant will rise by 50% in 2025-26 to £132m. Its chief executive, Dan Labbad, was also awarded a pay increase of almost 20% last year, leaving him with a salary of nearly £1.9m. Labbad previously pledged to tackle economic inequality.

Speaking to openDemocracy, Suzanne Muna from the Social Housing Action Campaign said it was “inconceivable” that the Crown Estate was allowed to earn money from housing benefits.

“When you follow the money, it really shows the utter obscenity of our current housing system,” she said. “We constantly hear from landlords and from government that we have to be prudent, that they can’t invest more in repairs and maintenance, or subsidise the cost of rents and service charges because they can’t fund it without raising taxes. In reality, the money is there but it’s going to the wrong people – in this case, the royal family.”

She added: “The new Labour government needs to take a long, hard look at priorities and make choices that benefit the greatest number, not a privileged few.”

In its latest annual report, the Crown Estate said: “Our approach to chief executive pay and reward seeks to ensure that the crown estate can attract and retain a world-class leader from a diverse pool of eligible candidates, with the ability to lead an organisation that, in value terms, would rank in the top 50 companies of the FTSE 100 if it were publicly listed.

“At the same time, it recognises that some form of remuneration discount is appropriate in leading an organisation that serves the nation.”

The Crown Estate owns huge swathes of land and property across the UK, including the whole of Regent Street in London, a mass of buildings near the capital’s West End, and rural sites nationwide. It is not known how many tenants currently live in Crown Estate housing, but most of its residential properties are in West London.

They include a three-bedroom flat near Buckingham Palace, which was recently advertised for £19,067 per month.

But reports in 2019 said that the Crown Estate had received more than 100 complaints about its residential properties in just two years, including grievances about rent hikes, leaks and faulty electrical goods.

One former tenant, who was evicted from his home in Somerset, accused the estate of “greed”. He told the Guardian at the time: “They are custodians and therefore they have a social duty to the public and their communities.”

When approached by openDemocracy, a spokesperson for the Crown Estate declined to comment.

GOING FURTHER

• Head of king’s property portfolio given 20% pay rise to £1.9m | The Guardian

• Annual Report (PDF) | The Crown Estate

• Prince Charles and Queen ‘given £200,000 in benefits’ | The Week

• Crown estate faces tenants’ anger over rent hikes, evictions and repair delays | The Guardian

• The Crown Estate delivers a record £1.1 billion net revenue profit for the public finances | The Crown Estate

Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in openDemocracy and re-published in PUBLIC SQUARE UK on 26 July 2024 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.

▪ Cover: Flickr/UK Parliament. - House of Lords. | 17 July 2024. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)