British royals earned more than £1bn from controversial estates: Report

British royals King Charles and the late Queen Elizabeth II have generated an income of more than £1 billion ($1.25 billion) from two property and land estates that have remained at the centre of a centuries-old debate over whether the public should instead get the profits churned by these properties, revealed an investigation by the Guardian.

The report specified the full scale of income that the royals are extracting from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which have been running giant portfolios of property and land across England.

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The duchies have been operating as real estate empires that professionally manage swathes of hotels, offices, farmland, shops, medieval castles and some prime luxury real estate in London.

The duchies also have their investment portfolios, however, they pay no capital gains tax or corporation tax. Duchy accounts, which are held in state and parliamentary archives, reveal how the queen along with her first-born son, who was given the title of the Duke of Cornwall, enjoyed a massive boost in their revenues from the duchies in her seven-decade-long reign.

The royal's duchy income, last year, totalled £41.8 million ($52.17 million). After adjusting the inflation, the total revenue earned by the royal mother-son duo was equivalent to more than £1.2 billion ($1.50 billion) from the two estates.

The profits earned from the Duchy of Lancaster, which includes rural land spread over 18,481 hectares primarily in the Midlands and the north of England, passes automatically to whoever is crowned next. The value of the estate today stands at £652 million ($813.78 million).

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The Duchy of Cornwall, which includes 52,450 hectares spread mostly in England's southwest, is worth more than £1 billion ($1.25 billion).

The estate has not updated its policy as per the legislation passed in 2013 to include gender equality in the royal succession. Hence, the estate's profits automatically go into the coffers of the male heir to the royal throne.

When King Charles, came to the throne last year, the heir to the throne – Prince William – automatically became the owner of the Duchy of Cornwall on paper, turning into a billionaire and one of England's largest landowners. He is likely to get an annual payment of around £20 million ($24.96 million).

(With inputs from agencies)

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