Andrew receives £302,000 pay-off for leaving Royal Lodge early

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been granted £302,000 in compensation for leaving his former Royal Lodge home before the end of his lease, a Crown Estate spokesperson has said. The former duke was stripped of his titles and honours and forced out of the 30-bedroom mansion in Windsor by the King over his ties to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, had not been not expected to receive any compensation for leaving Royal Lodge due to its dilapidated state and the cost of repairs. He paid £1.8m towards those repairs, but received £302,000 back from the Crown Estate for the early termination of his lease. The Crown Estate returns its profits to the Treasury for the benefit of taxpayers. Shorts A row had erupted over Mountbatten-Windsor’s future at the property after it emerged that he had charged staff to live in cottages on the estate while paying only a “peppercorn” rent himself for the mansion, where he lived for two decades. The King’s brother was forced to hand back the lease of Royal Lodge 50 years early amid the fallout from the US Department of Justice’s publication of emails detailing the full extent of his relationship with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor left the mansion in February in disgrace, and has since taken up residence at Marsh Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. However, only now has he formally surrendered the lease on his former home. In a statement today, the Crown Estate said he had paid £1.8m for dilapidations after the property was inspected by independent advisers. But he in turn was entitled to £302,000 for surrendering the lease early, making his total bill £1.5m. The Crown Estate, an independent property company nominally owned by the King, but created to make money for the taxpayer, will now seek to rent it out to another tenant. A removal van leaving the gates of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park after Andrew was forced to move out in February (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Getty) It will have to decide whether the property has to go to another member of the Royal Family or can be let to a private individual under the terms of section 5 of the Crown Estate Act 1961. This requires the property empire to maintain the character of the Windsor Estate as a Royal Park. The property will be marketed for its proposed future use by two nationally recognised agents. The Crown Estate said any transaction would be subject to its established governance and approval processes. A spokesperson added: “The lease for Royal Lodge has ended and our focus now is firmly on its future use and the opportunities to generate additional financial value for the nation from its early return.” This is a breaking story and will be updated.