Empty HMP Dartmoor pays Prince William's Duchy £1.5m a year - and there's a twist

Prince William's Duchy of Cornwall property each twelvemonth rakes successful £1.5million a twelvemonth from MMP Dartmoor contempt being bare arsenic it is leased to the Ministry of Justice

The Prince of Wales receives millions successful payer currency from an bare situation which has present go infested with rats and different vermin.

HMP Dartmoor is leased to the Ministry of Justice for £1.5 cardinal by the Duchy of Cornwall each year. The property gives Prince William a backstage income and it is his champion taxpayer-funded root of income, according to a associated probe by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

But the situation is closed and has been since July past year. It unopen pursuing precocious levels of toxic state being recovered successful captive accommodation and inmates had to beryllium moved to different jails. Among the inmates being moved were enactment offenders wrong for agelong stretches.

The statement successful the lease means that the property is not liable for the situation upkeep. A "dilapidations clause” besides means the payer indispensable fork retired £68 cardinal to repair the gathering adjacent though it was built with payer cash. There has been further deterioration connected the gathering since it unopen past year, on with vertebrate infestations and bats, insects and birds taking basal and taking vantage of the windows that were opened to assistance with ventilation.

The situation whitethorn ne'er reopen, according to a study by an autarkic monitoring board. The radioactive state radon, linked to lung cancer, had been recovered astatine the jailhouse erstwhile the 25-year lease was signed successful 2022. HMP Dartmoor’s aboriginal volition beryllium decided successful the summer, erstwhile the authorities looks astatine its spending plans, a situation spokesperson told the BBC.

The outgo of the lease has much than doubled since the 1980s, but a Tory root told the Times that the then-government felt it had to motion the lease oregon hazard losing situation spaces which are highly limited. Both the MoJ and the Ducky took ineligible proposal erstwhile the woody was enactment together, the property said.

William became the proprietor of the £1.3 cardinal Duchy of Cornwall erstwhile the Queen died and it provides him with a backstage income of much than £20m each year. At the aforesaid time, King Charles III inherited the £830m Duchy of Lancaster from his mother.

The 2 estates are exempt from a drawstring of taxes, including superior gains tax, corp taxation and inheritance tax. A Mirror probe with Channel 4 Dispatches revealed the commercialized profits from the 2 estates. The Duchy of Cornwall’s commercialized gross has grown 115% since 2011 to astir £21m and is present much than fractional of its revenue.

It pays nary superior gains tax, which the Government has raised to astatine slightest 24%, due to the fact that it says that “the immense bulk of its spot holdings are held for the agelong word arsenic halfway holdings” and each superior gains from spot income are reinvested. William has said helium volition wage voluntary taxation connected his apical earnings. The Duchy says: “This is not a request but thing His Royal Highness chooses to bash voluntarily. “ William did not uncover however overmuch helium has paid.

During the decennary from 2010 to 2020 it made connected mean £3.3m a twelvemonth from selling property. But during the past 4 years this roseate to £44m - oregon much than £11m a year. It precocious made much than £30m nett selling a warehouse successful Milton Keynes it had lone bought a fewer years previously.

Deals similar this person helped the full worth of the Duchy soar to astir £1.3 billion, up 73%, oregon astir doubly the complaint of inflation. A Duchy of Cornwall spokesperson said successful November: “The Duchy of Cornwall is simply a backstage property with a commercialized imperative which we execute alongside our committedness to restoring the earthy situation and generating affirmative societal interaction for our communities."

A Prison Service spokesperson told The Mirror: “After adjacent monitoring of the concern astatine HMP Dartmoor, we took the determination to temporarily adjacent the site. We proceed to instrumentality proposal from specialists to research however it tin beryllium reopened arsenic rapidly arsenic possible.” The Mirror has besides contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.