Prince Andrew's future at Royal Lodge is uncertain after a failed business deal meant to fund its upkeep. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Andrew’s future at Royal Lodge is in doubt after the collapse of a business deal that was intended to provide a financial lifeline, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
The deal would have allowed the prince to abide by the terms of his lease by paying for the hugely expensive upkeep of the vast Windsor estate.
Without it, he could face eviction from the 30-room Windsor property, on which he has not paid rent for two decades.
He has come under huge pressure from Buckingham Palace to move out amid concerns that the palatial property no longer befits his status.
There are fears in Andrew’s circles that the wider royal family is trying to force him into exile by leaving him with nowhere to live in the UK.
The lease agreement between Andrew and his landlord, the Crown Estate, demands that the prince fund the upkeep of the Grade II-listed property, which is thought to be in a poor state of repair.
The King last year seized upon the clause as a means of smoking him out and withdrew his personal allowance and security provision.
But the prince managed to cling on, citing proof of independent income through a commercial partnership with Dutch company StartUpBootCamp (SBC).
Sources confirmed to the Telegraph that this deal is now “dead in the water”.
The deal was outlined to Buckingham Palace officials at a meeting last summer. At the time, the King was also privately funding the prince and royal aides sought assurances that other money being channelled into the same bank account was legitimate.
A short time afterwards, that personal allowance was withdrawn, meaning that the palace no longer had any leverage to demand answers over Andrew’s income.
The SBC deal has since been abandoned after company directors are said to have baulked at the negative publicity embroiling the prince over his connections with Jeffrey Epstein and the Chinese spy scandal, fearing the tie-up would be too damaging for their brand.
The deal concerned the sale of contacts and networks developed through Pitch@Palace, the prince’s Dragons Den-style initiative that he launched in 2014.
Such introductions would have been hugely valuable to SBC as it vied for market share with US giant Y Combinator. For each connection, the prince had expected to make a hefty sum.
Last autumn, Dominic Hampshire, one of Andrew’s closest aides, registered a series of investment companies in Bahrain called Waterberg Stirling, which formed part of the proposal to take over the Pitch network.
SBC began talks with senior palace officials last summer to “seek approval before moving ahead with discussions and agreeing commercial terms” and began a “scoping exercise” on reigniting the Pitch@Palace network in the Middle East and Asia.
The palace sought reassurances from SBC that the proposed commercial partnership would not damage the reputation of the wider royal family.
A royal source insisted at the time that while they could not comment on the nature of any private meetings or presentations, they were taking a “passive rather than an active role” in the prince’s financial arrangements. Even then, they could only seek “verbal assurances”.
SBC gave the King’s advisers an undertaking that it would not use Buckingham Palace or Prince Andrew’s connections in any of its promotional material.
The meeting provided sufficient reassurance that the prince had access to legitimate funding.
Efforts to force the prince’s eviction by withdrawing his personal allowance and funding for his security provision subsequently failed. It was, palace sources admit, a “painful process”.
The collapse of the SBC deal, which the palace was not informed about, raises questions about how the prince is now funding the upkeep of Royal Lodge.
Estate agents told the Telegraph that the annual maintenance cost of such an estate, which includes eight cottages, could be conservatively estimated at 2% of its value.
For the £30m Royal Lodge, this would represent an annual bill of at least £600,000, not taking into account the sizeable grounds or the lease’s requirement that the exterior is repainted every five years.
The prince is also responsible for a comprehensive insurance package that protects the building from storms, tempests, earthquakes, explosions, terrorist attacks, and riots, as well as a hefty council tax bill.
Profits from the Crown Estate, which oversees the royal family’s land and property holdings, are handed to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation’s finances.
The prince’s lease agreement, seen by the Telegraph, shows that he signed a 75-year lease on Royal Lodge in 2003, paying £1m.
He has been paying a peppercorn rent ever since, on the basis that he stumped up an initial £7.5m in advance for renovations, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
If the prince were to give up the lease, the Crown Estate would have to pay him around £558,000 – comprising a compensatory annual sum of £185,865 until 2028, the 25th year of the agreement.
On Tuesday, MPs said the Prince should be hauled before Parliament to justify living rent-free in the mansion.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said he had embarrassed the royal family and should leave Royal Lodge.
“It’s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life,” he told BBC Radio 4.
“He has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the royal family time and again. I don’t see why the taxpayer, frankly, should continue to foot the bill at all. The public are sick of him.”
Opposition parties called for a parliamentary inquiry into the arrangement amid concerns that the taxpayer has been deprived of potential income.
There is said to be no barrier to MPs inviting a member of the royal family to give evidence to a House of Commons committee.
Simon Hoare, the Tory chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), left the door open to an inquiry.
He told the Telegraph: “As a committee, we have not discussed what, if any role, might exist for PACAC with regard to this matter. We are a Committee of the Commons and would, of course, shoulder any burden the House puts on us.”
Dame Meg Hillier, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, told the BBC: “Where money flows, particularly where taxpayers’ money is involved, or taxpayers’ interests are involved, Parliament has a responsibility to have a light shine upon that and we need to have answers.”
On Friday, the prince announced that he had agreed to relinquish his remaining titles and honours.
A YouGov poll, however, suggests that 80% of Britons support formally stripping him of his dukedom. The survey found four in five members of the public backed the idea, with 63% “strongly” in favour and 17% “somewhat” supporting the idea.
The palace had tried to force Andrew to move into Frogmore Cottage, the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ more modest former home, which sits within the Windsor security cordon three miles away.
But Andrew made it clear, through friends, that he was “going nowhere” based on the 75-year “cast iron lease” that he signed in 2002. It does not expire until 2078.
Royal Lodge, which sits in 100 acres of land in Windsor Great Park, was the home of the Queen Mother, wife of King George VI. It was leased to Prince Andrew when he expressed an interest in living there after her death.
SBC was contacted for comment.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.