King Charles simply cannot afford to risk allegations of hypocrisy with a wind farm deal

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The deal for the six new offshore wind farms, which has sparked a bidding frenzy, is £10bn over the next 10 years for the Crown Estate, which holds seabed lease rights in UK territorial waters .

The King would not have directly benefited from high energy prices or the $4 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies wind farms receive, but the fact that the auction for the leases reached such huge sums in The first place was driven in part by the current state of the energy market, which affects all households, and by government policy, which affects all taxpayers.

All of the profits from the Crown Estate go to the Treasury, but 15% of it goes to the Monarch in the form of the Sovereign Grant, who pays his official expenses (he also has private income from the Duchy of Lancaster). A further 10% is reserved for repairs to Buckingham Palace under a temporary arrangement until the work is completed.

Money from new wind farm deals will double Crown Estates’ income, according to a report, and if profits were to double as well, that would translate to around 800 million for the King over a decade (he currently receives 86, 3 million per year).

Much has been made of the kings’ wishes to slim down the monarchy, and just four months into his reign he is determined to show he really means it, insisting that manna should be used to the public good, as Buckingham Palace said, rather than pouring into the royal coffers.

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