Calls for inquiry into ‘all royal finances’ after Andrew subletting revelations

Campaigners have called for radical reform and a public inquiry into “all royal finances” after revelations that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received an undisclosed private income from subletting three cottages on his Royal Lodge estate while paying a “peppercorn rent”. A report from the public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), found the rental income went to the former Duke of York, but said: “We do not know what rent was charged.” It was published on Friday as part of a public accounts committee inquiry set up after a public outcry over revelations that the former prince was paying a peppercorn rent (a small token payment) on the Royal Lodge estate in Windsor before being evicted to Marsh Farm in Norfolk by the king. The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic and the former Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker said they would be pressing the public accounts committee for a full investigation. Republic called the subletting a “flagrant abuse of public property” and said that while serious concerns remained about the former duke’s use of publicly owned property, the whole family was “benefitting from a multimillion pound public housing scheme”. The report also revealed that Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters, the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who do not perform royal duties, live in royal palaces with their rent met privately by King Charles, and adjusted, or discounted, owing to tenants having to be security vetted. …