Shamed Andrew’s Royal Lodge rent deal forces investigation into royal home leases

It has been announced that the Public Accounts Committee, Parliament’s spending watchdog, is set to launch an inquiry into the Crown Estate following revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s lease of his Royal Lodge home

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Andrew: Media gather outside Royal Lodge in Windsor

An inquiry is to be launched into the Crown Estate and leases for homes held by the Royal Family after MPs demanded answers on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s lucrative rent deal for Royal Lodge.

The shamed former prince is currently living out his final days at the 30-room mansion before he is booted out to go and live on the King’s private Sandringham estate after being stripped of his titles following revelations about his association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In October, Parliament’s spending watchdog raised concerns over the value for money of Andrew’s living arrangements amid fury over his “peppercorn” rent for Royal Lodge. It emerged the disgraced former prince paid £1million for a 75-year lease of the Grade-II listed Royal Lodge mansion in 2003 and since then, he paid “one peppercorn” of rent “if demanded” per year.

The Public Accounts Committee, dubbed the ‘queen of select committees’ demanded answers from both the Treasury and Crown Estate asking them to explain Andrew’s lucrative lease. And today, the committee revealed it would be holding an inquiry into the estate and the leases it has agreed with other members of the Royal Family.

The inquiry will be based on the contents of the letters from the Crown Estate and Treasury and work from the National Audit Office updating its 2005 report, ‘The Crown Estate – Property Leases with the Royal Family’.

The committee will then hold an evidence session, the date of which will be announced in due course, and will consider witnesses to call once information is available on the areas to be covered at the session.

Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “We would like to thank The Crown Estate Commissioners and HM Treasury for their considered responses to our questions.

“In publishing these responses, the Public Accounts Committee fulfils one of its primary purposes – to aid transparency in public-interest information, as part of its overall mission to secure value for money for the taxpayer.

“Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry. The National Audit Office supports the scrutiny function of this Committee.

“We now await the conclusions the NAO will draw from this information, and plan to hold an inquiry based on the resulting evidence base in the new year.”

It comes as it also emerged that Andrew is also unlikely to receive any compensation for giving up his crumbling Royal Lodge home because of the repairs that will be needed to the 30-room mansion.

In a briefing to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, the Crown Estate said: “Our initial assessment is that while the extent of end of tenancy dilapidations and repairs required are not out of keeping with a tenancy of this duration, they will mean in all likelihood that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not be owed any compensation for early surrender of the lease… once dilapidations are taken into account.”

The Crown Estate said “before this position can be fully validated however, a full and thorough assessment must be undertaken post-occupation by an expert in dilapidation”. Andrew gave the minimum 12 month’s notice that he would surrender the property on October 30.

If no end-of-tenancy repairs were required, Andrew would have been entitled to £488,342.21 for ending his tenancy on October 30, 2026.

Andrew is also set to have his final Christmas at his Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor, before he is booted out of the property in the New Year.

When he moves to a much smaller property on the King’s private Sandringham estate without his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, who lives with him at Royal Lodge.

When it was announced Andrew would be surrendering the lease to move to an unknown house in Norfolk, it was said the move would take place as soon as practically possible, with reports suggesting this would be sometime in the new year.

But it appears the move could actually be delayed until February as moving out of such a grand home into a smaller one would take time – and it is unclear if his new home would be ready.

Meanwhile, the Crown Estate also revealed details of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s lease on their new home Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

It said William and Kate, who moved into their property with their children in the October half term, hold a “a 20-year non-assignable lease with The Crown Estate for Forest Lodge, commencing 5 July 2025” and have “open market rent”. This contrasts with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s peppercorn rent on Royal Lodge.

William made an approach and after discussions with the Royal Household, the Crown Estate commissioners were asked to consider the lease of the Grade II-listed mansion for William and Kate for use as their “primary private residence”.

“Negotiations were conducted on an arm’s length basis, to ensure appropriate market terms were agreed,” the Crown Estate said. It said independent valuers from Hamptons and Savills estate agents were appointed to value the property, and William and Kate received independent legal and property advice, as did the Crown Estate.

“The lease for the Property was concluded on a 20-year Common Law Tenancy at an open market rent subject to standard Landlord & Tenant repairing obligations. The rent was assessed by Savills and Hamptons acting on behalf of the Crown Estate. Knight Frank acted for TRH’s The Prince and Princess of Wales,” the Crown Estate said.