It’s emerged that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received up to £2,000 per month for sub-letting three cottages – when he didn’t have to pay any rent himself.

A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry into the Crown Estate says the former Prince Andrew did not always rent out all the properties, so it cannot estimate a total income for around 20 years.

The sub-letting income went to Mountbatten-Windsor, rather than his landlord the Crown Estate.

MPs on the committee have recommended that in future such leases should prohibit sub-letting, unless specifically agreed with the landlord.

The Public Accounts Committee has examined leases on royal properties as part of an inquiry into the management of the Crown Estate, which is an independent property company that pays its profits to the Treasury.

Mountbatten-Windsor had taken on a 75-year lease for Royal Lodge in 2003 and had paid about £7.5m towards its renovation and other charges, which meant that he did not have to pay rent.

He had been intermittently sub-letting three cottages that were part of the property, which was thought to be for staff and at a below market rate, with Mountbatten-Windsor keeping the income.

Sub-letting was allowed as part of his lease but the PAC recommends that in future the default position for such Crown Estate properties should be that such sub-letting should be banned, unless there was a specific exemption.

There was a payment of about £300,000 to Mountbatten-Windsor for his early surrender of his lease, but because of “dilapidations” in the state of the building, there was a repair bill of £1.8m. 

A National Audit Office report revealed earlier this year that his daughters – Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie – do not pay for their accommodation in St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace respectively.

The King pays their rent to the Royal Household from his own private income.