William, Prince of Wales

[heyalice]

England has at least got to the big dance on occasion, the Leafs couldn't get there even if you put the directions in their GPS.

[Auroranorth]

Jul 15, 2024 21:29:00 GMT -4 lea1977 said:

England is the Toronto Maple Leafs of the soccer world.

I'm neither a soccer nor a hockey fan, but I feel like this is not a compliment.

[gremlin45]

BBC article.

In a forthcoming ITV documentary, Prince William talks about the profound impact of visits he made to The Passage homelessness shelter with his mother when he was a child - and how it helped him see “outside the palace walls”.

(snip)

“My mother took me to The Passage. She took Harry and I both there. I must have been about 11, I think, probably, at the time. Maybe 10. I’d never been to anything like that before. And I was a bit anxious as to what to expect,” he says in the ITV documentary, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness.

(snip)

Prince William's Homewards project, which has six flagship locations across the UK, aims to show homelessness is not inevitable.

"The ultimate ambition is to prove that we can prevent homelessness in these regions, so then others will come along and go, well, if they can do it, why can’t we?" says the prince.

It draws on the experience of Finland, where homelessness was effectively reduced by a policy of providing secure accommodation for people, with wrap-around support for contributory issues such as mental health problems and addiction.

The documentary is on ITV1, 30 and 31 October, at 21.00.

I really hope the Homewards project works. I can't imagine what it's like to be homeless, but it's got to be a miserable and dangerous way to live.

[tiggertoo]

In North America, it’ll be available on Disney+

[featherhat]

One thing I do admire about William and his team/s is that they consistently look for solutions to the problems/causes they put his name to. Both with this and Eathshot they say there's a problem but that it can be overcome and he's willing to put his influence and the Duchy behind it. I'm not sure the programme itself will draw numbers but the scheme deserves a lot of backing.

So much better than endlessly trying to raise money for a vague end goal.

[Auroranorth]

William/his team seem to be good at taking on long-term issues, which will probably shape his future reign. I think it's wise to pick projects that show he's dedicated and willing to stick to a cause, because who knows how long he's going to be PoW. He didn't pick Charles's exact interests, but he is carrying on the Crown's interest in sustainability and environmentalism. You have continuity in a good way.

[boxofrocks]

A couple of highly critical pieces examining William and Charles' property holdings are being released.

Mirror and Channel 4: Scandal of Prince William's mouldy, hard to heat royal rentals - that don't meet standards

The Duchy of Cornwall transferred from Charles to William in 2022 (when Charles became king), so the implication is that they both have culpability over the properties' condition.

Scores of rental properties owned by Prince William fail to meet the minimum legal energy efficiency standards for landlords, we can reveal.

We found some of his tenants are at risk of fuel poverty, living in hard to heat homes that are riddled with damp and black mould. Our investigation with Channel 4 Dispatches has found that as many as one in seven of William’s inherited Duchy of Cornwall’s residential rental properties have the lowest Energy Performance Certificate ratings of F or G.

It comes as the taxpayer is funding a £369m renovation of Buckingham Palace and Prince William launches his campaign against homelessness and for “everyone having a right to a safe and stable home”. One tenant said: “The slick PR will stick in the throat of many tenants. He should start by bringing the homes he already owns up to modern standards.”

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The Duchy of Cornwall website states that the “Dukes of Cornwall have traditionally managed their own estates … Over the last few years, HRH Prince William, the current Prince of Wales, has worked with his father managing the estate and has now taken over full responsibility for the estate leadership.”

Times: Revealed: the property empires that make Charles and William millions

This is a long and fascinating one going over the breadth of the properties held by the Duchies of Lancaster (Charles) and Cornwall (William). A map in the article states that they own over 5,400 properties in England and Wales. The contracts include commercial leases, access agreements, and mining rights to commercial tenants, the military, and the NHS. The duchies do not pay customary taxes, although Charles and William pay personal income tax.

Today, a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme reveals the full details of the property estates owned by Charles and Prince William, and the tax-free business deals they have struck to maintain their wealth.

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Under a memorandum of understanding with the Treasury, they [the duchies] receive special tax status.

This means they pay no capital gains or corporation tax and do not have to comply with property laws such as compulsory purchase orders.
The King and the prince both pay income tax voluntarily at the highest rate (45 per cent) on the duchy money they receive. The last time Charles published his taxes, for the year 2021-22, he paid income tax of £5.9 million, which amounted to just 25 per cent of the £23 million duchy profit because he deducted expenses he considered related to his official duties.

William says he adopts the same approach as his father, although neither royal has revealed how much they pay in tax from their duchy incomes since 2022. Charles’s predecessor as the head of the Duchy of Lancaster, Queen Elizabeth II, did not declare how much tax she paid.

[hellsbells]

Hopefully, with the negative publicity, William will be forced to clean up those apartments. People deserve to live in dignity.

I will extend to him the grace of assuming he didn't know about the horrific conditions, and now he has the funds and the opportunity to make things right.

Especially having recently taken on the cause of homelessness.

[Ladybug]

Why were these property conditions allowed to get so bad while Charles was the Duke of Cornwall? They didn't get this dilapidated in the 2 years William has been DoC. From the Mirror article:

“I asked about double glazing and they said Prince Charles doesn’t like it. Well he doesn’t have to live here.” A fourth said: “The house is cold and it is a struggle but there is nowhere else to live here. They are not good landlords.”

One Duchy tenant who let us take photos of her home is Claire Williams, 53, who was evicted last week over rent arrears – which she disputes. She says she wasn’t told when an energy assessor found her former farmhouse outside Exeter was rated F in 2015. But she says she has struggled with cold and damp since she moved in more than 20 years ago.

"The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate with a commercial imperative which we achieve alongside our commitment to restoring the natural environment and generating positive social impact for our communities. Prince William became Duke of Cornwall in September 2022 and since then has committed to an expansive transformation of the Duchy.

“This includes a significant investment to make the estate net zero by the end of 2032, as well as establishing targeted mental health support for our tenants and working with local partners to help tackle homelessness in Cornwall.”

If you have 60-70 properties that need extensive renovation, that's a tall order for a relatively short time span. It sounds like they are trying to get it done but it's a slow process that obviously needs more attention put on it.