£9.5bn Duke strikes a blow for gender pay equality!
AGROWING number of blue- blooded women have complained about the ‘injustice’ of aristocratic estates being automatically handed down to their family’s eldest male heir.
And now Britain’s richest landowner has struck a blow for sexual equality.
I can reveal that the Duke of Westminster, who inherited his title when his father, Gerald, died suddenly last summer at the age of 64, is receiving the same sum from his family’s estates as his three sisters.
Exact figures for their earnings are not publicly available but could run into millions every year.
The disclosure comes as a big surprise because it had been widely reported that the new Duke, Hugh, had inherited his father’s vast £9.52 billion Grosvenor Estate, which includes large chunks of London’s Mayfair and Belgravia.
Moreover, a spokesman confirms that Hugh, who works in the accounts department of a company that turns waste coffee grounds into biofuels, has declined to take up his father’s post as chairman of the Gros-
venor Estate because he feels he is too young. ‘The chairman of the Grosvenor Estate Trustees is much better held by a member of the family than by any of the other trustees but, at age 26, hugh feels that he should gather some experience before taking up the role,’ the spokesman tells me.
‘so it has been agreed with him that the other trustees will chair meetings by rotation until he has such time and experience to take it on.’
The family provided details of their financial arrangements to society magazine Tatler, which reports: ‘The ancient tradition of [ male] primogeniture allowed hughie to succeed to the title, but his sisters receive just as much as he does from the estate.’
That might help explain why TV’s Dan snow, who is married to hugh’s sister, lady Edwina, 35, was able to boast recently that he didn’t have to ‘grind it out’ with the sort of speaking engagements his fellow historians use to boost their income.
hugh’s 37- year- old sister, lady Tamara, is married to Norfolk landowner’s son Edward van cutsem, a close friend of Princes william and harry, while his third sister, lady Viola, 24, remains single.