Prince William Set To Sell A Fifth Of Duchy Of Cornwall
Prince William is set to sell a fifth of the duchy of cornwall over the next 10 years as he consolidates his holdings around five heartlands. The plan would reshape a portfolio worth more than £1bn and one that brings him nearly £23m a year in private income.
Will Bax, the Duchy chief executive, said the prince decided it should not exist just to own land and wanted it to “have a positive impact on the world.” Bax said Prince William planned to invest £500m into his priorities, using money from land sales, development income, partnerships and borrowing.
Five Heartlands
The holdings are set to be focused around the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Dartmoor, the Bath area and Kennington in south London. Those five areas are where the Duchy will keep its strongest presence as sales and consolidation proceed over the next decade.
The private income from the land helps fund the charitable, private and official lives of Prince William, his wife and their children. That makes the scale of the planned sales more significant for the way the estate is managed as well as for the places that remain inside it.
Bradninch Estate Concerns
The plan comes after people living on the Bradninch estate near Cullompton, Devon, raised concerns in March about plans to sell off land. Bax told The Times that all 10 tenants there were “engaged in a conversation around buying their farm,” and said he believed the majority of those 10 tenants would buy their farm.
He also said: “If we don't see an opportunity for positive impact, then perhaps we don't need to be a part of that place” and added: “But where there is social need and where there is environmental challenge and where there is an opportunity to enable change, then we'll be a great partner in working with people to achieve that.”
For tenants, the immediate question is whether their farms stay in family hands or come onto the market under the Duchy’s consolidation plan. For the estate, the next phase is the shift from owning land broadly to concentrating around the five heartlands while directing the £500m plan into the stated priorities.
