69
submitted 11 months ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

King Charles’s estate has announced it is transferring more than £100m, including funds collected from dead people under the archaic system of bona vacantia, into ethical investment funds after an investigation by the Guardian.

The surprise announcement comes amid growing pressure on the king over the Duchy of Lancaster’s use of funds collected from people who die in the north-west of England with no will or next of kin.

On Thursday, the Guardian revealed some of the funds were secretly being used to renovate properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit by his estate. The duchy conceded that some bona vacantia revenues are financing the restoration of what it calls “public and historic properties”.

However the king’s estate has also been battling separate questions over its management of another portion of bona vacantia funds that are given to its charities.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 5 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The surprise announcement comes amid growing pressure on the king over the Duchy of Lancaster’s use of funds collected from people who die in the north-west of England with no will or next of kin.

On Thursday, the Guardian revealed some of the funds were secretly being used to renovate properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit by his estate.

Contacted by the Guardian this week, the Duchy of Lancaster initially declined to say whether its charities had invested in any oil or gas, tobacco, weapons or mining companies.

The Duchy of Lancaster’s announcement of a similar policy comes amid growing questions for the royal estate which has long claimed that bona vacantia proceeds go to charity after costs are deducted.

Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, said: “Like so many other local people I was surprised to learn the anomaly that means those dying without a will or heir in the county palatine see their assets passed to the king rather than the state.

It’s an unjust and archaic hangover from the medieval times and I’ll be seeking advice on how to bring my constituents’ rights out of the feudal era.”


The original article contains 981 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
69 points (96.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4092 readers
74 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS