The Windsor clan stand to take an extra £2 billion from the British people over the next tens years if they are not stopped.
This windfall would be the result of an auction of sites on the British seabed for wind farms that is expected to generate £9bn of income for the Crown Estate over ten years. The Estate manages a portfolio of public assets including the seabed.
The Windsors will benefit because of decisions taken in 2010 to give the feudal family 15% of the profits of the Crown Estate. When the Estate’s profits go up the Windsors get more. But if the profits fall there is no reduction in the clan’s take.
According to the Daily Mail “250 year of history was overturned” by the decision to allow the Windsors to get their hands on income that has been recognised since 1760 as belonging to the people of Britain. In 1760 the German side of the family had not yet emigrated to this country.
A Mail source told the newspaper that “Charles (Windsor) has always believed the money from the Crown Estate as taken away from the family. Now they have got it back. One could say they have pulled a fast one”.
The Financial Times quoted a “government source” as saying that “The royal family must have been getting the champagne out when we conceded this. They have been trying for decades to persuade ministers to do it”.
The percentage given to the Windsors can be changed only by three “trustees”, the prime minister, the chancellor of the exchequer and Elizabeth Windsor’s chief financial officer. In 2018 these three increased the percentage to 25% for ten years.
The Windsors now stand to receive more unearned and undeserved income than they dreamed of at a time that workers and businesses are suffering intense hardship as a result of Covid-19.