Andrew’s £488k Royal Lodge compensation in doubt - as 'peppercorn rent' scandal deepens
Andrew gave the minimum 12 month’s notice that he would surrender the property on October 30
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is unlikely to receive any compensation for giving up his Royal Lodge home because of the repairs that will be needed to the 30-room mansion.
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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.”
It comes as new investigations were announced into all homes owned by the Crown Estate following a backlash surrounding Andrew's "peppercorn rent".
A statement released by the estate read: “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.
Read more: Disgraced Andrew officially stripped of last remaining royal titles
The former prince will receive a one-off, six figure payment to cover his move, plus an annual stipend privately funded by the King to prevent him from overspending.
The Public Accounts Committee published letters from the Crown Estate and the Treasury on Tuesday, responding to queries about the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge.
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.”
The King officially stripped his brother Andrew of his prestigious Order of the Garter and Royal Victorian Order honours this week.
Charles directed that Andrew’s titles should be “cancelled and annulled” and his name “erased” from the historic orders’ registers.
The disgraced former prince was previously made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 2006 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 2011 by his mother the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Andrew has already been stripped of his birthright to be a prince and an HRH and had his Duke of York title removed from the Roll of the Peerage by Charles for his “serious lapses of judgment” over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.