More than 600 acres of English farmland in the western county of Herefordshire, owned by Prince William, has been put up for sale.
The farm belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, a historic private estate dating back to the 1300s, established by King Edward III to provide income to the eldest living son of the reigning monarch. Prince William became the owner when his father, King Charles III, ascended the British throne.
The estate spans 12,000 acres across 20 of England’s 48 counties and includes the Highgrove Estate, one of the King’s private residences, as well as parts of Wales, and provides 20 million pounds (CAD$37 million) of private income to Prince William every year, according to its website and the BBC.
The heir to the throne is selling the vacant plot in Cradley, near Ledbury, in western England for 6.65 million pounds, according to British property consulting firm Fisher German.
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According to the listing, the property includes an eight-bedroom farmhouse set on 617.40 acres (249.85 hectares) of productive pasture and arable land.
A duchy spokesperson told Global News: “We are in the process of aligning and rebalancing our portfolio so that our places and assets deliver the greatest possible social and environmental impact. This means making careful, long-term decisions about where we focus our resources.
“Where a sale could affect tenants, we are speaking to people directly and supporting them through the process with care and respect. We recognise that each of our tenant’s circumstances are different, and we are taking a careful, case-by-case approach. Existing tenancy terms are central to these discussions, and we have support in place for tenants as they consider what is right for them and their families,” it concluded.
Last month, the duchy confirmed it would sell off 20 per cent of its property — valued at more than 1 billion pounds (CAD $1.8 billion) — over the next 10 years.
Will Bax, the chief executive of the Duchy of Cornwall, revealed the organization’s strategy to consolidate its holdings and invest the proceeds in environmental and social projects in an interview with The Times of London in May, The Associated Press reported.
William has decided that the duchy “shouldn’t just exist to own land,” Bax told the Times. “It should first and foremost exist to have a positive impact on the world.”
The initiative comes as the British Royal Family, in general, and the Duchy of Cornwall, specifically, face pressure to be more transparent about their finances and to show that the monarchy provides value for money for taxpayers.
The duchy now plans to focus on five “heartlands” in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Dartmoor and the Bath area, all in southwestern England, as well as the Kennington area of London, Bax said.
Land sales will help the duchy invest about 500 million pounds in housing, renewable energy and environmental projects, he said.
The duchy’s profits support the public and private life of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children. It reported a profit of 22.9 million pounds in the financial year ending March 31, 2025.
— with files from The Associated Press
The royal family should be giving back to the people of Britian
So many people misinformed and ignorant of the facts (comar.yago for one). The Royals pay taxes and also contribute millions through tourism in the UK.
Give to Harry his mother would be proud
This abuses the important value of preservation of what our environment has. Selling environmental assets to fund the costly political objective of wasteful renewables energy projects and urbanisation projects can only intensify problems our country already has. It’s well known France is around 4 times the size of the UK and had a smaller population than the UK. France has a generally more agreeable climate for a considerable increase in population. The UK’S resources are already beyond any acceptable limits because of over urbanisation. It’s becoming increasingly costly for our governments and mainstream media to keep on hiding problems created from over taxation and rapidly increasing costs of living because of limited resources created from over urbanisation. Net zero/ renewables are just another form of taxation and Selling of masses of environment to fund a costly problem will only make matters a lot worse in the long run. People need space and undeveloped environment for physical and mental wellbeing as well. Selling of a chunk of the duchy to help fund what is turning out to be a gross political misjudment can only make a bad problem become worse.
I think what he is doing is great.
A comment to a couple people who said that the royal family don’t pay taxes.
The British monarch historically had legal tax-exempt status, In 1993, Queen Elizabeth voluntarily offered to pay income and capital gains tax on her personal income following growing public debate. The details of this agreement were formalized in the Royal Finances Guide published by the Royal Household.
She paid tax on her private income and any income from the Privy Purse (including the Duchy of Lancaster) that was not used for official duties.
The Sovereign Grant (which funds official royal duties) was, and continues to be, fully exempt from tax.
Prince William voluntarily pays income tax on the revenue he receives from the Duchy of Cornwall. While he is legally exempt from paying taxes on the estate due to historical royal exemptions, he chooses to pay the highest UK income tax rate of 45%.
Reports estimate his voluntary tax contributions are between £5 million and £7 million a year, placing him among the UK’s highest taxpayers.
He’s gone to give it to his new allies; the fkng moors, same as daddy…😅🤣🤣😂😂😂
He got it working so hard… the damn pos pimp.!!!…
big eared incest freak should give the money back to the people they taken it from
It’s not his money. It’s looted wealth from so called Third world countries by these pigs. Biggest dacoits in the histroy
Why not give the land to a nonprofit charity.
Jolly good! Tally ho! Pip Pip! Carry on! Keep a stiff upper lip! Hopefully the land will be put to good use.
Acres and hectares are around the wrong way.
PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY, FINE UPSTANDING MAN. ROYAL BLOOD, HE’S BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE
And the moment it is sold I’m sure Ed Milliband will appropriate large swaths of the farmland for solar power generation despite being the dumbest thing to do with farmland that anyone ever dreamed of.
Parasites, that pay No Taxes and continue to make normal folk homeless for profits…absolutely disgusting.
Not my King and we should abolish this out of date pomp & Privileged Parasites….
Down with the Crown and return all their stolen Jewels , Land , Property back to the People whom it belongs…
They charge Charities Rent and profiteer from those that serve the people in voluntary roles….
Hypocrites at Best but definitely Free loading Parasites that serve no purpose for normal folk/ Patriots….