William... the VERY modern Prince: No wearing ties or 'being polite just because I'm in the room' and stick to WhatsApp - royal's new approach to Duchy of Cornwall as he 'removes ambiguity from discreet organisation'
Prince William has revealed his fresh approach for the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate he inherited from his father upon the King's accession to the throne.
In an interview with The Telegraph's Royal Editor Hannah Furness, who spent a day travelling alongside the Prince of Wales, 42, as he visited his tenants, the royal shared how he was modernising the land and property empire.
This includes encouraging people involved with the Duchy to speak openly, with the Prince telling his staff to 'please give [everyone] proper authority to say what's really going on. Not being polite because I'm in the room,' ahead of a meeting in Dartmoor.
Elsewhere, Matthew Morris, the rural director of the Duchy, revealed how employees 'no longer feel the need to put on a tie when the Duke of Cornwall is in town' - perhaps unlike when Charles - who is often smartly dressed in a full suit - visited.
The publication also noted how William will communicate with staff via WhatsApp and ask questions over the social media platform in order to keep updated.
But while the Prince is seemingly taking a more modern approach to the estate compared to his father, the pair do share a 'healthy impatience'.
Ben Murphy, estate director, admitted that the royal has a 'healthy impatience, as his father did', while secretary Will Bax said the father-of-three is 'pretty ambitious' and 'pretty demanding', which he added, is 'great'.
Discussing the Duchy's fresh approach, Bax added that the estate has 'perhaps been a slightly discreet organisation that hasn't really put its head above the parapet very much, that hasn't spoken very publicly about what's important to us'.
He added that the Prince - who is looking to improve the estate so it has even more of a positive social impact, while keeping its key community spirit - and his team are 'seeking to remove any ambiguity'.
The aim for the Duchy's mission, which is to deliver a positive impact for people, places and the planet, to be more understood by the public comes after the property and land empire, as well as the King's estate, the Duchy of Lancaster were investigated by a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary: The King, The Prince & Their Secret Millions.
In the 2024 programme, it was revealed how the the Duchy of Cornwall is profiting from public services. In 2017, it billed Devon county council £300,000 in a 21-year rental deal for a primary school on Dartmoor.
Other deals include charging a primary school near Bath £60,000 for a 25-year lease and £189,000 to a secondary school in Cornwall over 30 years to use a farmhouse. The Duchy of Cornwall also charges the military to train on its 67,500 acres of Dartmoor, but the MoD would not disclose the exact bill. That is despite Charles being head of the Armed Forces and William being a lieutenant colonel in the Army.
Charities have also paid millions to the duchies to rent a 1960s office block in London next to the MI6 HQ.
They include Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care, where Charles is patron, and Comic Relief, which William has promoted.
Meanwhile, Charles' property empire, which provides a private income to the monarch, is earning £830,000 a year from renting a two-storey warehouse to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, bombshell documents revealed.
The unprecedented audit of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Prince of Wales's private estate, showed taxpayers are shelling out millions every year to boost the wealth of the senior royals.
Charities – even those where the King is patron – are also stumping up millions, the five-month investigation of more than 5,000 landholdings and properties showed.
Duchy money is private income for Charles and William on top of the Sovereign Grant.
The Duchies are run as commercial enterprises, but pay no capital gains tax nor corporation tax. Both Charles and William do pay income tax, but it is not clear how much.
The Duchy of Lancaster, which in 2023 generated £27.4 million for the King, and the Duchy of Cornwall, which raised £23.6 million for William, are not required to pay business taxes.
Both estates claim they are not funded by the taxpayer, but the cache of documents obtained by Dispatches and the Sunday Times laid bare the huge income they receive from public services.
The Duchy of Cornwall said it is 'a private estate with a commercial imperative... committed to restoring the natural environment', and said it was 'acting in a responsible and sustainable way' on mining.
The Duchy of Lancaster said it 'operates as a commercial company' and 'complies with all relevant UK legislation'.
The Duchy of Cornwall - a major landowner with 130,000 acres of land - was established in 1337 to provide an income for the heir to the throne.
After King Charles ascended the throne in 2023 Prince William took over ownership of the Duchy.
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