Prince William selling 20% of duchy property for housing and nature projects

The Duchy of Cornwall, which provides a private income of over £20m per year to the Prince of Wales, is to sell off 20% of its property over 10 years. There will be £500m invested in local communities, including in affordable housing and environmental projects, as first reported in The Times. The property empire spans 128,000 acres across 19 counties, and is given to the heir of the throne, but there has been a push for a greater focus on "social impact". "We're not the traditional landowner… we want to be more than that. There is so much good we can do. I'm trying to make sure I'm prioritising stuff that's going to make people's lives, living in those areas, better," said Prince William. But former Home Office minister and a critic of royal finances Norman Baker said the duchy would still be a "royal fruit machine... he pulls the handle and gets a jackpot every time". He said that the switch to more housing would not leave the duchy any worse off: "More houses, more tenants, more income," Mr Baker said. In the duchy's new strategy, there will be a greater emphasis on five areas where it is a landowner - Bath, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Isles of Scilly and Kennington in south London. The