As part of Prince William’s “pay attention to ME and not my brother” blitz this week, he ran to Roya Nikkhah at the Times to preview his latest housing scheme. William plans to build some form of “public housing” on Duchy of Cornwall land. The planned 24 homes will be built in Cornwall and William thinks the whole thing will only cost £3 million (it will not). William billed this project as part of his bid to “end homelessness,” because that dumbass loves to overpromise and hype himself as the savior of homeless people. In any case, people who are actually familiar with Cornwall’s real estate crisis are extremely peeved about William and his scheme. You can read the full piece here at Byline (it’s very interesting) and here are some highlights:

Cornish councillors and activists have warned that plans by the £1 billion Duchy of Cornwall estate – now controlled by Prince William – to build 24 homes for homeless people on Crown land will make little dent in a housing crisis that has left 23,000 people waiting for a council home.

Cornwall Council Labour group Leader Jayne Kirkham welcomed the scheme but told Byline Times that it represents a drop in the ocean to tackle the issue. “Obviously we need something more systemic than a project like this,” she said. “It’s a huge problem. We are struggling all across Cornwall. I’ve seen many families evicted from their private rented accommodation and having to live in caravans. It affects the kids’ schools, and parents’ jobs.”

Coastal Cornwall has a persistent issue with thousands of unregulated holiday lets and (often empty) second homes vastly outnumbering the number of homes available for rent. AirBnb listings show that, as of 20 February 2024, there are 976 ‘entire homes’ available as short-term holiday lets in Cornwall for more than £240 a night. Yet there are just 348 homes currently available for general private rent in the entire county listed on RightMove. Another site, OpenRent, lists 117; while OnTheMarket lists 145. Cornwall has a population of 570,000 people.

Lib Dem Councillor Thalia Marrington represents Mousehole and Newlyn, fishing communities which appear deserted at certain times due to the prevalence of second homes and holiday lets.

“You can never build enough because people want to move ‘down to lovely Cornwall’,” she told Byline Times. “But we have such a massive crisis. There are roughly 23,000 on the housing waiting list in Cornwall. When you’re talking about 24 homes… As soon as you hear ‘24’ you don’t look into it too much more, because it’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are already around 800 households in emergency temporary accommodation here… Yet we’ve got thousands of AirBnbs and second homes in Cornwall, so you’ve got so much [housing] stock gone.”

“[William’s project is] all wrong housing – it’s houses with five bedrooms,” she said. “It’s not going to help the housing crisis… There seems to be the blanket approach that any housebuilding is good because they’re all sold, that stock is ‘trickling down’ [to locals]. It’s the opposite.”

Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic points out that the Duchy estate is not Prince William’s personal property but that of the Crown. It is, in effect, gifted by Parliament to the heir who is the eldest son of the monarch. The Duchy estate may expect to make profit from the homes, which will at any rate remain its asset, rather than being ‘donated’ to St Petrocs.

Graham Smith, Republic CEO, said: “The country will spend at least £3.4 billion on the monarchy over the next decade. That’s money that could be invested in homes for those who most need them, instead of two dozen palatial homes for one family.” Smith argues that Prince William is “part of the problem”. “Rather than be thankful for a few homes built on Duchy land, which William will profit from, we all need to be demanding the return of the Duchy to full public ownership and an end to the monarchy,” he told this newspaper.

[From Byline Times]

It’s always been so bizarre to me that British people, by and large, do not object to the fundamental fact that “the crown” owns so much real estate across the UK. Home ownership is such a fundamental part to “building wealth” for so many families, but British people are stuck in a deeply flawed system where they’ll live all their lives as renters, many of them in homes and farms owned by the crown or various duchies. As for William’s planned Cornwall housing development… it is a drop in the bucket and he’s also not going to be able to build 24 homes that cheaply, and clearly, what’s needed is political movement and the government stepping in and changing the local laws for renters and development. All of the people criticizing William’s big scheme should also know that he probably won’t even follow through! He gets bored a lot and just drops sh-t all the time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.