Prince William Is Cashing Cheques from a Toxic Prison While Taxpayers Pick Up the Bill

Prince William likes to be presented as the modern prince. The thoughtful one. The socially aware one. The man is forever being photographed talking earnestly about homelessness, mental health and the future of the planet. And yet, behind the soft-focus branding curated by the media, the old royal business model keeps showing through. This week’s example is especially grim: William has received at least £2.5 million through the Duchy of Cornwall from leasing HMP Dartmoor to the Ministry of Justice, even though the prison has been shut since 2024 over dangerous radon levels. 

The Cheques Keep Coming

It is worth noting that this was not a new problem suddenly discovered by the mainstream press. Rebecca Tidy and Byline Times were reporting on Dartmoor’s radon dangers back in January 2024, when inmates were already being moved over fears of prolonged exposure to the radioactive gas. Tidy has since said she pitched the story widely at the time and that “nobody but Byline Times took it on,” only for others to return later with copycat “exclusives.”

Now, according to The Times, the Duchy of Cornwall has been leasing HMP Dartmoor to the Ministry of Justice for £1.5 million a year since December 2023. Over the past 20 months, the Duchy has therefore received at least £2.5 million from a prison the government already knew had serious radon risks when it renewed the lease.

The prison shut down in 2024. The lease did not. The Ministry of Justice cannot exit before December 2033, and a dilapidations clause reportedly leaves taxpayers potentially liable for up to £68 million over the life of the agreement, on top of roughly £4 million a year in security, ventilation, and rates for a site that is now unsafe, infested, and largely unusable.

So the picture is not complicated. The Duchy keeps receiving rent. The public picks up the security bill, the long-term liability, and the fallout from a prison that should never have remained in this state.

But Surely He Pays Tax on That?

Ah, yes. The Duchy’s favourite talking point. Prince William is a “top‑rate taxpayer who voluntarily pays income tax on the surplus profits he receives from the estate.” How generous.

Except the Duchy refused to say how much tax William actually paid on that £2.5 million of prison income. And unlike his father, who released this information when he was Prince of Wales, William keeps the numbers behind a velvet rope. Selective transparency is not transparency. It is a PR shield.

This Is Not an Isolated Incident

The Dartmoor story did not emerge from nowhere. A joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, called The Duchy Files, already revealed that the King and William had been charging the army, the navy, the NHS, and schools for the use of their land, rivers, and seashores. After that investigation drew massive backlash, William stopped imposing rents on lifeboat stations, the fire service, village halls, and school playing fields.

Whatever your views on the Royal Family, we can surely all agree that they shouldn’t be profiting from our NHS. https://t.co/78dfH9Urir

— NHS Million (@NHSMillion) November 2, 2024

But Dartmoor? He kept that one going. Because why would a future king give up £1.5 million a year from a prison lease, even when the prison is a health hazard, and the public is paying through the nose to keep it standing?

The Pattern Is Ugly

The Duchy of Cornwall likes to present itself as a force for public good, funding community projects, supporting sustainable farming, smiling for the cameras. But when you look at its commercial dealings with public bodies, a different picture emerges. It operates like a profit‑maximising landlord, even when the tenant is the state, even when the asset is unsafe, even when the human cost is real.

Dartmoor is not an anomaly. It is the pattern sharpened to a point. A royal estate extracting money from a failing public lease while the public absorbs the risk, the repair bill, and the political fallout.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee called the decision to renew the lease “a blind panic” by senior civil servants. Sir Geoffrey Clifton‑Brown, the Conservative chair, said the Ministry of Justice’s handling of HMP Dartmoor was “an absolute disgrace, from top to bottom.” Notice who was not mentioned in that dressing‑down? The landlord. The one cashing the cheques.

Final thoughts

Prince William is sold to us as a modern prince. Then you look at Dartmoor. And you see something older and uglier: a hereditary estate that takes public money from a toxic, empty prison, refuses to say how much tax it pays on that money, and leaves the taxpayer holding the bag.

That privilege is monetised and dressed up as public service. So the next time we see William in a tweed blazer, speaking earnestly about “making a difference,” just remember: somewhere in Devon, a derelict prison is slowly decaying, rats are nesting in empty cells, and the Duchy’s bank account is still £1.5 million richer. The future king is not going to mention that in his next speech.