We all know the Royal Family are immensely wealthy. They own twenty-two royal residencies, comprising beautiful castles, palaces, manors, and estates. They enjoy considerable personal wealth in the form of art and jewellery collections, as well as private investments. They also receive tax-funded payments from the British public (which amounted to £86.3 million for 2024–25) to pay for their household staff, travel and the maintenance of their vast properties. None of this is anything new.

However, following an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times back in November, it was shockingly revealed that the private estates of both King Charles and Prince William are making millions of pounds a year by charging the army, the navy, the NHS, the prison service, and state schools to use “their” land, rivers, and seashores; while simultaneously benefiting from massive exemptions for corporation and capital gains tax.

These property portfolios are known as the “duchies” of Lancaster and Cornwall, which comprise sprawling property businesses (of which there are more than 5,400), with assets jointly worth £1.8 billion. The Royals earn revenue from a plethora of places, including toll bridges, gas pipelines, ferries, sewage pipes, village halls, churches, pubs, car parks and wind turbines, to name a few.

Investigative work has also discovered some of the shocking deals that the duchies have made with public bodies; for example, charging the NHS £11.4m over 15 years for a warehouse to store ambulances; charging the Ministry of Justice £37.5 million to lease Dartmoor Prison for 25 years; charging the British Army to train soldiers on Dartmoor; and the Navy to moor and refuel its fleet and many, many more.

This is shockingly disgraceful. We expect the Royals to defend and uphold the values and institutions which we hold integral to our British society, and yet they have completely denigrated them, treating our public services like cash cows as they squeeze out every last possible penny. Talk about benefit scroungers!

The incomes from the royal duchies have increased fivefold since the early 1990s, and they raise around £50 million in the last year, with every penny ending up in the personal pockets of King Charles and Prince William (£27.4 million and £23.6 million respectively). Not that they need the extra money, with the King worth a staggering £610 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. The Republic report has also calculated that William’s personal income is six times the combined salaries of all the elected heads of state in Europe.

For centuries, we have swallowed the cost of upholding our Royal Family on the basis that they are paragons of patriotism—the pinnacle of national pride on the world stage. They are meant to represent the purest and proudest form of Britishness; a benign force of good which is bound to duty and selflessness in the service of our nation. We are told that we should be proud of this system. We are told that the idea of inheriting billions of pounds’ worth of wealth, palaces, and prestige on the basis of “birthright” and bloodline is a normal, acceptable concept in the 21st century. We are told how they offer a more safe and stable alternative to an elected head of state. We are told that this option will protect us from ending up with a self-centred, out of touch occupier of our country. We’re told this... but do we really believe it?

Is this national Stockholm syndrome? It feels as if the Royal Family have kidnapped our country, convincing us that we need them and that there is no viable alternative. Yet poll after poll shows there is little appetite for inappropriate proportions of wealth. People have had enough of inequality. It is obscene that we have allowed this to happen for so long, but especially considering the current dire state of our country.

Austerity has been thrust upon normal working people for years and consequently we are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, soaring house and rent prices, and cuts to our public services. Meanwhile, the Royal Family and all the other millionaires and billionaires in this country have been making more and more money right under our noses.

Maybe it is time for a referendum to see what the public really think on this issue; or maybe the thought of another simplistic “yes” or “no” vote is too painful to bare?