Prince William is preparing for a shake-up of the Duchy of Cornwall by selling off around a fifth of the vast royal estate as part of an ambitious £500million plan to tackle Britain’s housing and environmental crises.

The Prince of Wales, who inherited control of the duchy after his father became King, is expected to offload parts of the billion-pound estate over the next decade while concentrating investment in a handful of key areas.

William, the 25th Duke of Cornwall, receives a private income of nearly £23million a year from the sprawling estate, which stretches across 21 counties and includes land, farms, housing and commercial properties worth more than £1billion.

The income helps fund the official, charitable and private lives of Prince William, Catherine, Princess of Wales and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Now, in what insiders reportedly see as a major modernisation drive, the future king plans to slim down the estate and focus on five ‘heartlands’ where advisers believe the duchy can have the biggest social and environmental impact.

Those areas are said to include Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Dartmoor, the Bath region and Kennington in south London.

Will Bax, chief executive of the Duchy of Cornwall, told The Times the prince believed the estate ‘shouldn’t just exist to own land. It should first and foremost exist to have a positive impact on the world.’

Mr Bax said the duchy’s future would centre on addressing climate change, boosting affordable housing, investing in renewable energy and helping struggling rural communities.

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The Prince of Wales, known as the Duke of Cornwall while in Cornwall, meets representatives from the local Fire Service during his visit to Tor Bog, an area of restored peatland on Dartmoor

Speaking about the proposed sale of around 20 per cent of the estate, he said: ‘If we don’t see an opportunity for positive impact, then perhaps we don’t need to be a part of that place.

‘But where there is social need and where there is environmental challenge and where there is an opportunity to enable change, then we’ll be a great partner in working with people to achieve that.’

William plans to pour £500million into the project through a mixture of land sales, development income, partnerships and borrowing.

Around £160million is expected to be directed towards housing projects, including affordable homes in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and south London.

The duchy is also reportedly hoping to unlock between 10,000 and 12,000 new homes by 2040 through development on land near urban areas.

Other projects under consideration include expanding industrial facilities on St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly and encouraging new business ventures on Dartmoor to help younger residents remain in the area.

Environmental schemes are also expected to form a major part of the prince’s agenda, with plans for 100MW of renewable energy generation over the next decade – enough to power up to 100,000 homes.

An additional £20million is expected to be invested into nature recovery programmes alongside wildlife organisations and government partners.

Mr Bax said: ‘The duke talks about the seesaw of ensuring that we create optionality, by being commercial where it’s easier to be in order to really double down on need, where we know that we can be game changing in how we invest.’

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Prince William breaks ground for the new facility during a visit to St Mary’s Community Hospital which is set to be built on adjacent land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall

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The proposed changes come after controversy earlier this year surrounding the duchy’s decision to sell ten tenant farms on the historic Bradninch estate in Devon.

The estate, near Cullompton, has belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall since the 14th century, and tenants previously claimed the uncertainty had left them ‘enormously stressed’.

Mr Bax insisted the duchy was attempting to help farmers buy their properties rather than forcing them out.

He told The Times all ten tenants were ‘engaged in a conversation around buying their farm’ and said he believed most would ultimately purchase them.

The duchy has also faced criticism over allegations it behaved in an ‘overly commercial’ way in some of its dealings with charities, community groups and public bodies.

The duchy also continues to receive £1.5million a year from a government lease linked to HMP Dartmoor, despite the prison being largely unusable because of dangerous radon gas levels in the ageing Victorian building.

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.com/news/royals/article-15825899/Prince-William-sell-fifth-Duchy-Cornwall-invest-500million.html