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The two daughters of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor are continuing to receive rent free accommodation in the Royal Palaces of Kensington and St James, despite the departure of their disgraced father and despite neither being working Royals, a report by the National Audit Office reveals today.
Beatrice and Eugenie and the Duke and Duchess of Kent are being financed by the King from the Privy Purse from his private estate, which includes the Duchy of Lancaster.
The details emerged as part of a report from the Royal Household and the Crown Estate which had been requested by MPs.
The rest of the free accommodation in both palaces is occupied by eleven working Royals, in exchange for their official duties.
The concession is worth a large sum of money, since details of payments required to occupy Royal accommodation for non-working Royals are equivalent to 60% of current market rents for central London.
The report does not give the present sum.
Andrew’s daughters would otherwise have been forced to leave his home in Royal Lodge Windsor when the King ordered his brother to depart the property in the wake of the Epstein scandal. It is understood that the deal preceded this move.
Andrew Is Entitled to £500,000 Compensation for Losing Royal Lodge, Say Crown Estate
The disgraced former Prince is unlikely to receive any payment due to the deterioration of the property, say officials
Andrew was entitled to compensation because of the early termination of the lease. However, at the time it was said that dilapidations to his property would cancel this out.
The new report casts some doubt on this, however, as the agreed sum has still not been fixed months after the decision.
The report also reveals that Mountbatten Windsor sub-let three properties on the Windsor estate while occupying Royal Lodge but does not reveal how much money he made from the lettings.
The properties are now empty following his eviction from the lodge.
It also foes into granular detail about the large number of other properties occupied by working and retired staff on the various Royal estates.
There is a formula to make out the level of rents staff have to pay to either the Crown Estate or the royal Household because they have to live on the estate.
It works out as equivalent to 16.7% of their gross pensionable salary.
Altogether 145 properties are covered by this.
In addition there are 255 properties owned by the Royal Household let to military knights pensioners and also rented privately to individuals subject to security checks.
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