Queen’s Duchy of Lancaster private income rises to more than £23m

THE QUEEN’S annual income from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate has increased by £1.5m to more than £23m, new accounts have shown.

The money the Queen receives from the Duchy – a portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the sovereign – rose by seven per cent to £23,244,000 in 2019/2020. But the Duchy’s net asset value fell by more than £10m, dropping 1.8 per cent to £538m, despite the accounts up to March 31 2020 only covering just one week of lockdown.

Nathan Thompson, the Duchy’s chief executive, warned the Duchy is set to face “significant

challenges” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Thompson said: “Although these results include only one week of the Covid-19 outbreak, the pandemic has had an early impact on capital values.

“The fall of 1.8 per cent in net asset value is largely due to a deterioration in the value of our financial portfolio following market reaction to Covid-19.

“We also recognise that, while it is too early to predict the eventual outcome, many of our tenants’ businesses will be adversely affected, particularly those in the leisure and retail sectors.

“Next year is therefore likely to present significant chall-enges.”

But he said with careful control of costs he believed the Duchy could protect its portfolio and support the most vulnerable in its communities. The Duchy of Lancaster private estate is owned by the Queen as Duke of Lancaster, and its rural estates consist of more than 18,000 hectares of land in England and Wales.

It has been the personal estate of the reigning monarch since 1399 and is held separately from all other Crown possessions. The Duchy’s main urban holding is the lucrative Savoy Estate in central London but it also owns Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire.