Prince William apologises to duchy tenants after furious backlash over estate selloff

The Duchy of Cornwall has apologised to tenants for its handling of the sale of the Bradninch estate in Devon and promised new valuations of their farms and homes.

Last week, The Observer revealed growing concerns about the Prince of Wales’s decision to sell off the 1,215-hectare (3,000 acres) holding to raise money for other priorities, including tackling homelessness and the climate crisis.

Tenants have been offered the chance to buy their properties but some cannot afford to do so. Others claim their farms have been overvalued and the duchy has failed to take into account the amount they have invested in them.

Prince William was “not happy” to read the report, sources say. Last Sunday, he spoke to Matthew Morris, the duchy’s rural director, to discuss how to respond.

On Thursday, Morris visited Bradninch and met with the tenants. One said the royal representative was “all apologetic”, and admitted he had underestimated the amount of time involved in disposing of such a large estate.

Morris agreed to new independent valuations, with joint instruction by the tenants and the duchy. He also said he would look again at how the money spent on improvements should be recognised. One tenant said the conciliatory message was reassuring but “talk is cheap” and the “proof will be in the pudding”.

William is selling off a fifth of the land he inherited from his father in 2022 to focus on five geographic “heartlands” in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Bath and Kennington, south London.

The decision to sell the Devon estate, part of the Duchy of Cornwall since the 14th century, has provoked a furious backlash.