Prince Andrew has paid a ‘peppercorn’ rent on his Royal Lodge for two decades, according to the tenancy agreement released by The Crown Estate.
The agreement states that the scandal-mired prince has paid only “one peppercorn (if demanded)” in rent per year since 2003, despite paying £1 million for the lease along with at least £7.5 million for refurbishments in 2005.
The release of the lease, which was sent to The Independent, follows calls for transparency over the royal’s residence, with focus turning back on Andrew’s 75-year lease of the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge in Windsor after another week of scandal.
The royal announced he will no longer be known as the Duke of York, following continued accusations about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while extracts of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs contain more on allegations that they had sex on three occasions.
Prince Andrew, who has always stringently denied allegations involving Ms Giuffre, lives in Royal Lodge, which sits on an estate of 98 acres in Windsor Great Park and is leased from the Crown Estate.
On Monday, there were demands among some MPs for parliament to remove his titles, while pressure was also grew on the Estate to reveal more about the tenancy agreement amid heightening calls for him to move out.
Norman Baker, a royal author and former Liberal Democrat minister, said details of the contract should be made public to see if there is a possibility he could be moved out.
He told The Times: “All leases have some kind of break clause, so the public must know how he has been able to remain there, and on what terms he could be forced to leave.”
Speaking to the same outlet, royal author Andrew Lownie said: “I think it is important for transparency that the full details of that arrangement are made public and why the property – in effect public property – was only offered to him.”
In response to an inquiry on the issue, The Crown Estate sent The Independent a copy of the lease struck in 2003, on which Andrew paid £1m, and was required to carry out £7.5m-worth of refurbishment on the Grade II-listed property.
The contract can be forfeited by the Estate if any rent is not paid for 21 days, or if there is any breach of a tenant covenant, the contract states.
The document also states that the tenant must keep and preserve the grounds in good and proper order, and that the building be repainted every five years. The Crown Estate also has the right to inspect “upon reasonable notice”.
Some details about the agreement were already known through a National Audit Office (NAO) report in 2005, which said the decision on the lease was made as it was “appropriate in view of the overriding need to maintain close management control over Royal Lodge”.
The report said Andrew approached the Crown Estate over the property following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth’s mother.
At the weekend, ex-royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the BBC that Prince Andrew had a “cast-iron” deal to stay at Royal Lodge.
She said: “Should he be dislodged from Royal Lodge, where he lives, this large house in Windsor, well he has a pretty cast-iron tenancy agreement and that is difficult, the King has been trying to get him out.
“Andrew likes us all to believe he has a tendency to be rather too honourable. Well, I do think the honourable thing might be to say, I will relinquish not only my titles… but I will also relinquish this rather large home. But I don’t see that happening.”
The Crown Estate said it made the decision to share the copy of the lease on Monday, adding that the document contained information already available through the Land Registry and the NAO report.
The only exception was a “schedule of dilapidation”, it said, which it was now seeking to confirm if it could be shared without breaching security considerations.
It said the £7.5m in refurbishments, as set out in the contract, were completed in 2005.
