A Commons committee is to launch an inquiry into the Crown Estate following questions over its lease of Royal Lodge to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee released details of its inquiries into Andrew’s lease arrangements for his home on the grounds of Royal Lodge, which he is giving up amid ongoing scrutiny over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The committee of MPs published responses from the Crown Estate and the Treasury to questions it raised about the lease, after it emerged Andrew could receive compensation of £558,000 for giving it up.
Public anger mounted over the possibility of the disgraced former royal receiving a payout, particularly following reports that he had only paid a “peppercorn rent” for the Grade-II listed home for the past two decades.
Details of the property arrangements confirmed the peppercorn arrangement. It also revealed that Andrew gave the minimum 12 months’ notice that he would surrender the Royal Lodge 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 30 October, 2026.
But the Crown Estate said that following an inspection of the property on 12 November, it was thought unlikely that any compensation will be paid.
However, while Andrew “in all likelihood” will not be owed any compensation for the early surrender of his lease, a committee of MPs has said it will launch an investigation into the Crown Estate.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry. The National Audit Office (NAO) 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.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Where does Andrew get his money from?
Andrew’s only publicly declared stream of income is the pension he receives for his time spent in the Royal Navy between 1979 and 2001, according to the Guardian.
While this is said to amount to about £20,000 a year, historian Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, told Yahoo News previously it will likely be higher as the figure will have increased with inflation.
In terms of public money, the last published figure dates from 2010, when Andrew received £249,000 for that year.
The Guardian said that following that year, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made direct payments to Andrew from her own private wealth while he carried out his royal engagements.
Before he lived at Royal Lodge, Andrew was based at Sunninghill Park near Ascot after it was gifted to him by his mother. Andrew sold the property in 2007 to Timur Kulibayev, a billionaire from Kazakhstan, for £15m.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may not receive all of a compensation for leaving Royal Lodge. (PA)
Royal author Robert Hardman claimed in a book published last November that King Charles had cut off his brother Andrew’s annual living allowance, reportedly about £1m a year.
Hardman said Andrew had other sources of income through his contacts in international trade, having been the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment between 2001 and 2011.
In 2015, Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson bought a luxury chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier for a reported cost of up to £13m, which was then sold in 2019 for a reported £19m.
How is the royal family funded?
The Royal Family has three main sources of funding.
Firstly, there is the Sovereign Grant, provided by the government to the royal household to support the King’s official duties, and includes the maintenance of the occupied royal palaces.
For 2025/26, the grant increased to £132.1m, having been £86.3m for each of the four previous years.
The second main source of income is the Duchy of Lancaster, a portfolio of land, assets and property held in trust for the King, with the aim of providing an independent revenue stream that is mainly used to pay for expenses incurred by other members of the royal family.
It encompasses more than 18,000 hectares of land and property in central London, and was worth £679m at the end of March 2025 and had made £24.4m in annual profit.
The entrance gates to Royal Lodge, which Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is expected to vacate in the new year. (Getty Images)
Whoever holds the title of the Duke of Cornwall – currently the Prince of Wales – also benefits from the Duchy of Cornwall, covering land in south west England, with assets worth £1.1bn and annual profits of £22.9m.
Thirdly, there is the King’s personal wealth and income, derived from his own investment portfolio and private estates, used to pay for his private expenses.
This portfolio includes the Balmoral and Sandringham estate, both inherited from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and increased by £30m to £640m for the past year.
The way the royals are funded has often been criticised for lacking transparency, with former Home Office minister and Lib Dem politician Norman Baker telling the BBC in May: “The royal family has been very efficient in persuading the public purse to keep coughing up more money. We’re told public finances are tight… but we can pay for an increase for the royal family. It’s completely wrong.”
What happens next to Andrew?
On Monday, 1 December, the King officially stripped his brother Andrew of his Order of the Garter and Royal Victorian Order honours, having already been stripped of his birthright to be a prince an HRH and his Duke of York title removed over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew is set to move from Royal Lodge in Windsor to somewhere on the King’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk at some point in the new year.
It is thought that Andrew will be denied most of the £558,000 compensation for giving up his lease on Royal Lodge, where he had paid a peppercorn rent for more than 20 years.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s lease for Royal Lodge has been the subject of scrutiny. (Getty Images)
He was due the payout after agreeing to quit the 30-room mansion, but The Telegraph quoted a royal source as saying there is “a lot of work that needs doing” to the property, with the cost of repairs likely to affect the payout.
The letter to MPs from the Crown Estate, published on Tuesday 2 December, further confirms that Andrew is unlikely to receive compensation.
It is thought, however, that Andrew will receive a one-off, six-figure payout to cover his move, along with an annual stipend from the King.
The Guardian reported that this stipend will be worth several times his £20,000-a-year Royal Navy pension.
Is it understood that the King will use his private funds to cover this cost and not his income from the Duchy of Lancaster.
