Prince Williams £6m salary could go up to more than £20m next year

The Prince of Wales is set to earn an eye-watering £20m salary next year as he is now entitled to a private income generated from the Duchy of Cornwall landed estate, following the death of his grandmother, the late Queen.

The 41 year old heir to the throne, following his father the King's accession, earned £6m this year but faced criticism for not publishing an annual report in his first year as the next in line to be king.

Since inheriting the Duchy land Prince William will now benefit financially from its surplus profits every year.

Republic, a company which campaigns for an elected state instead, called on Prince William to report his income and expenditure and also, for him to use the money from his Duchy income to give it to local communities across the UK.

The Duchy generated record profits of £24.048 million in 2022-23 – up £1.02 million from £23.024 million the year before, a jump of about 4.5%, the estate’s own accounts showed.

And under normal circumstances, Prince William would be entitled to the full amount as his private income but as he became heir to the throne halfway through the financial year, it has now complicated matters.

According to Kensington Palace, the King, as the former Prince of Wales, was entitled to £11.275 million of the surplus profit.

But the Palace said as a “one-off associated with the change in Dukes of Cornwall”, the Duchy team asked to retain a proportion of the surplus for “working capital purposes” – the day-to-day running of the estate – this year.

The Duchy kept £6.873m, leaving William with an income of £5.9 million.

The annual figures were published last week Thursday, in the same week Prince William launched a campaign called Homewards, which is his five year plan to abolish homelessness in six locations around the UK.

A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: "Their royal highnesses have been working through with their Duchy and household team their plans and priorities for the Duchy and the household in the years to come, and how these support their work and charitable priorities, such as The Royal Foundation and its programmes.

The rep added: "And it’s why the household is not publishing a partial annual report."

But Graham Smith, Chief Executive of Republic, said: "William has some explaining to do because a change of monarch and heir is no excuse to row back on what little transparency there is."

He added: "There is absolutely no reason why William’s household cannot provide a full set of accounts for this financial year. As the recipient of public funds from the state-owned Duchy he should be reporting his income and expenditure."

He went on to say: "As Duchy profits appear to be growing to a record £24m it’s time we demanded the return of the Duchies (of Cornwall and Lancaster) to the people and for revenue to be spent on local communities."

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