ROYAL FAMILY EXEMPT FROM ‘FEUDAL’ LAND LAW REFORM
AN ANGRY couple have hit out at planned reforms to the leasehold system that will leave the Royal Family exempt from the changes.
They live in the Scilly Isles and their home falls under Prince Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall.
Alan Davies and his wife Glen, both 78, have less than 40 years on the lease. According to Alan, his home is unsaleable unless he can extend the lease.
If the duchy agrees, it is likely to cost him thousands of pounds in extra charges per year.
The couple bought their twobedroom house on the island of St Mary’s in the Scilly Isles as a holiday home in 1983 but have been living there since 1996.
It had 100 years on the lease in 1960. He pays just £25 per year ground rent but has friends who have seen theirs rise to £7,000 or £12,000 in some cases at the hands of the duchy after extending their leases.
Others have to pay more than £1,000 per year if they want to let their homes out as holiday lets.
Feudal
Alan complained that it is nothing more than a money-making exercise for the duchy, which gave Charles £22million profit last year.
He used it to fund official duties, philanthropy and lifestyle of his branch of the family – himself, Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children.
The couple are among residents who have been campaigning for years to be given the same rights as in other parts of the country.
The proposed leasehold reforms will force landowners to end a feudal system of home ownership dating back almost 1,000 years.
More than 4.5 million people are expected to benefit from changes due to be introduced in Parliament before spring 2023.
They will make it easier and cheaper to buy out leases or extend them by 990 years at zero ground rent.
But there will be exemptions for the three estates that finance the Royal Family. The Ministry of Housing, which earlier this month announced the reforms, wants the Crown Estate and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall to continue to be treated as special cases.
The Government hopes the three will adopt the spirit of the reforms.
But even if some benefit, people who live near palaces and royal parks, in parts of the Scilly Isles, around Dartmoor prison in Devon, and in the village of Newton St Loe, Somerset, are expected to be excluded.
The ministry said: “Leaseholders in the Crown Estate and the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster do not have a statutory right to extend their lease or purchase the freehold.
“However, they have said that in most cases they will give their leaseholders the same rights the proposed reforms will give others. We expect this to continue.”
The ministry added that there were “some excluded areas including the Isles of Scilly”, which fall under the Duchy of Cornwall.
The Crown Estate, a property empire that owns much of London’s West End, does not directly fund the monarchy. It gives all of its £345million annual profit to the Government. But the Queen receives 25 per cent from the taxpayer in the Sovereign Grant.
The Duchy of Lancaster last year produced a £23million profit for the Queen.
Alan said: “The Duchy of Cornwall’s behaviour is very different to that of the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Lancaster, we know that now.
“Where somebody wants to purchase their freehold, unless it’s sitting next door to a palace they allow them to do it, whereas the Duchy of Cornwall has got a completely different take on it. For the duchy it’s finance, it’s money. They charge thousands of pounds in ground rents to people. So it’s a money-making thing. It firmly goes back to Charles.”
The duchy insisted it was just trying to protect the precious environment of some of the most beautiful parts of the estate but could not explain why that could not be done by the local authority.
It was waiting for discussions with Government. Clarence House said: “The Duchy of Cornwall will be reviewing their position when any new legislation emerges.”