Prince William will travel to Princetown on Tuesday to launch a new regeneration fund for the Dartmoor village, on the same day his estranged brother Prince Harry turns 42.

The Prince of Wales will unveil the Princetown Community Fund, which will offer at least £250,000 for social, economic and environmental projects. Grants will range from £500 to £40,000 and Devon Communities Together will manage the scheme.

The announcement gives William another opportunity to present the Duchy of Cornwall as a force for community investment. But it also brings two uncomfortable issues back into focus: the £1.5 million annual rent the Duchy receives for an unusable prison and William’s own record of relying on helicopters while positioning himself as a leading voice on climate action.

The Prince of Wales will launch a new regeneration fund next week to assist the isolated rural community situated alongside Dartmoor prison. William will visit Princetown on Tuesday to unveil The Princetown Community Fund, which will offer at least £250,000 to back local social, economic, and environmental projects in the village.

The Independent

The £1.5 Million Prison Rent Has Not Disappeared

The Ministry of Justice continues to pay the Duchy £1.5 million a year for HMP Dartmoor, despite the prison remaining empty because of elevated radon levels.

William has directed the Duchy to reinvest that annual rental income into Princetown and Dartmoor from 2026-27 instead of including it in the income available to him. The Duchy says the new £250,000 fund forms part of that wider commitment rather than representing the full amount.  

That is an important distinction. William is not personally donating £1.5 million of his own money. The Ministry of Justice is still paying the rent, and the Duchy is still receiving it.

The situation looks even worse from the taxpayer’s perspective. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found that HMP Dartmoor costs around £4 million a year when rent, rates, utilities and security are included, despite holding no prisoners. The committee also found that the government cannot currently terminate the lease until after December 2033.  

So while reinvesting the rent locally is better than treating it as ordinary Duchy income, the underlying arrangement remains extraordinary.

Questions also remain over how the balance of the £1.5 million will be allocated beyond the initial £250,000 fund and how much will ultimately reach local organisations directly.

Then There Is William’s Climate Credibility

The Dartmoor announcement also lands alongside another issue that deserves scrutiny: William’s travel choices. The Prince of Wales has made the Earthshot Prize central to his public identity, regularly calling for urgent environmental action and presenting himself as a global climate leader.

Yet the Royal Family has repeatedly faced criticism over its use of helicopters, charter flights and private aviation. An Independent investigation found millions of pounds in public money had been spent on royal helicopter and charter travel over several years, even as senior royals intensified their climate messaging.  

William has also attracted criticism for using helicopters for journeys that critics argue could have been made by road. If William wants to persuade the public that climate action requires urgency, his own travel choices should withstand the same scrutiny he expects governments, businesses and ordinary people to accept. Environmental leadership carries more weight when personal behaviour matches the message.

Public Service Should Invite Scrutiny

The Duchy itself promotes net zero, renewable energy, sustainable farming and nature recovery, and it says it plans to invest more than £500 million over the next decade across communities and environmental projects.  

Those commitments deserve to be judged on what they deliver. But William should not receive automatic credit simply because a press release uses the language of regeneration or sustainability.

The Duchy still receives public money for an empty prison. The taxpayer still carries the wider cost. William still benefits from one of Britain’s most privileged landed estates. And his environmental leadership continues to invite questions whenever royal travel appears inconsistent with the message.

The issue is not whether William should launch community funds or campaign on climate change. He should. The issue is whether the media will scrutinise how those initiatives sit alongside the money, privilege and behaviour behind them. Public service should not mean lower standards of accountability. It should mean higher ones.

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