Welsh farmer takes stand against Crown Estate over bill to access own field
Emily Price
A Welsh farmer who paid thousands of pounds to the Crown Estate to access his own land has taken a stand and refused to pay any further fees.
David Hardwick has lived on his family’s beef and sheep farm in Radnorshire, Powys since he was a baby.
The 79-year-old told Nation.Cymru that 28 years ago he began receiving invoices from the Crown Estate charging him an annual rental fee to use a farm track which leads to one of his own fields.
The track near Llanbister dates back to the 1880s and would originally have been used by locals travelling by horse and cart to an inner dwelling.
The route has deteriorated over the years and can now only be navigated using a tractor.
Mr Hardwick says there is no other route to access his land other than the track now owned by the Crown Estate.
Bills
A copy of an invoice shows he is currently being charged £100 a year by the Crown Estate to access his field.
Mr Hardwick says that at one point the fee increased to £250 before decreasing again to £100.
The letter appears to show that the payments are received by the Crown Estate via Savills – an estate agent appointed to manage the Crown Estate’s land portfolio.
The invoice also shows that the Crown Estate is trying to claw back a £450 debt built up by the farmer during the years he refused to pay.
Mr Hardwick has estimated that he has paid around £3000 to the Crown Estate since he began receiving the bills in 1996.
Refusal
Around three years ago, when the annual rental charge was increased, Mr Hardwick decided to take a stand and stopped paying the fee.
He then received a visit from Crown Estate officials asking him to pay up.
Mr Hardwick said: “When I stopped paying altogether a representative of the Crown Estate showed up at my farm at 6:45 in the night trying to get me to pay the arrears.
“I told them that I felt as though the charge is against my human rights and I should not have to pay it.
“After all these years I think I have probably paid what that track is worth by now and I shouldn’t have to pay more.
“Crown Estate officials have come to my farm three times now trying to get me to pay the annual fee – but I refuse.”
Profits
The Crown Estate is a huge collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch worth around £16 billion.
It is run as a business, independent of government, but its profits are delivered to the UK Treasury each year.
An annual payment is also made to the monarch in the form of the Sovereign Grant, currently set at 12% of the total.
Crown Estate profits more than doubled from £443 million to £1.1 billion in 2023/24.
It’s has become a controversial issue in Wales over recent years with all county councils officially expressing their support for responsibility of the Crown Estate assets to be handed to the Welsh Government.
Flawed
Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, David Chadwick, said: “The Liberal Democrats have long called for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales and for the profits made from renewable energy in Wales to be spent in Welsh communities.
“However, the issues around access to land highlighted by my constituent expose just another flaw in the set-up of the current system.
“The Crown Estate made over £1.1bn in 2023/24, most of which came from the profits they are making from the nation’s renewable energy sources.
“It is immoral that they seek to boost these profits even further by charging farmers and others for the ‘privilege’ of accessing their own land, something which most had done so previously for no cost for hundreds of years.”
A spokesperson for The Crown Estate said: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We cannot discuss individual leases, but we’d be happy to look into this and get back to Mr Hardwick.
“We are committed to reviewing our leasing and licensing arrangements to ensure they are proportionate, transparent, and deliver value for communities, as well as meet our duties set by Parliament to manage assets commercially and deliver value to the taxpayer.”
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‘Value to the tax payer?’ what a pile if BS. The people of Cymru are sick to the back teeth of being screwed over by the Crown and British government. Our resources, which now include water and wind, must stop being plundered and Welsh territory belongs to the Welsh public not some obscure rich little family with virtually no power any more. Centuries of crap must stop and before independence – when it definitely will stop.
We need independence in wales English should have nothing to do with welsh people we don’t want royalty in wales
Well past time that these creaking ancient anachronisms were abolished. I don’t particularly take it out on Charlie personally, since I’m sure he hasn’t the faintest idea of the minutiae of the moneys that the minions in his service exact in his name. I reckon that he floats serenely and obliviously above all of it.
But there’s just too much of this sort of antique feudal stuff in this country. Past time that it was scrutinized and then purged.
However, I suppose I should declare a sort of interest, because, fifty years ago, I once lived in Llanbister!
What will it take for Wales to gain control over its Crown Estate like Scotland did in 2017? Why is it that there’s one rule applied to Wales by Whitehall and none to the other home nations even though there’s a obvious mandate. We have our so-called voice in the UK cabinet, Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens , who not only agreed with Wales not receiving HS2 consequential but is actively fighting against Wales interests robbing the Senedd of billions that could do so much good to end child poverty. Aid our struggling NHS, and fix our neglected infrastructure. She has… Read more »
Giving Wales’ Government “control” over the Crown Estate and other anachronisms will not necessarily put a stop to incidents like that described above. Sadly too many of our own bureaucrats display exactly the same traits as the others in Whitehall/Westminster. They will get hold of the income from the CE and just focus on its deployment not pausing for a moment to consider whether it is levied properly in the first place.
Independence. Wake up people. This is Wales not English. Vote a Welsh party.
How about the royals find proper work like everyone else instead of dressing up, lavish banqueting and mooching off the taxpayer and pensioners? Can we unsubscribe from this rip-off?
This is the “cause célèbre” that we need to start the dismantling of the Crown Estate in Wales but I bet you they will roll over and stop charging Mr Hardwick.
Just abolish the monarchy, it is archaic it is pointless and it is expensive.
It’s the year 2025 and people still believe in lord of the rings style kings and queens nonsense. No wonder Britain is backwards.
Abolishing the monarchy will not stop the Crown Estate charging people to use its land. The name may change, but nothing else.
A disgusting situation made by a disgusting institution and protected by a corrupt gang of awful individuals.
Stop the theft.
Prince Andrew’s (definitely not) victim payoffs aren’t cheap.
Royal Finances Report from the Republic campaign:’ The Palace claims the Sovereign Grant is provided in exchange for Crown Estate revenue. This is untrue. The ‘surrender’ was a reorganisation of state assets and revenue that happened in stages between 1760 and 1830. In no meaningful sense is the funding the monarchy receives in 2024 in exchange for funds the government receives from the Crown Estate. Regardless of royal funding arrangements agreed by parliament, Crown Estate revenue will always go to the Treasury, no matter what the monarchy may wish to happen. …… no relationship between the net income of the… Read more »
Someone has to pay for Kate’s clothes, manicures and regular house renovations.
Just a reminder, the vast majority, (I think 90% this year)of crown estate income goes to the public purse, paying schools education benefits etc. The other is mostly to offset costs which we use to spend. It’s not tax evasion, and it is minute in the wider context, but it is still less money into the public purse so to speak.
Obviously ridiculous re the farmer, but this isn’t some pocket money for king Charles as some people seem to think!
If locals have been using the track since the 1880s it would seem that a right of access had been established before they started to charge Mr Hardwick. Probably the monies with interest should be repaid to him as well as to everyone else being charged for access, which is really a type of blackmail and morally repugnant.
Bandits and thieves
Wales belongs to us Welsh people, not the crown because if the crown owns the land, and if you count everyone else that owns land in Wales that wasn’t born here then that would shrink our land down to nothing but a reservation, and surely that is an injustice to an indigenous people that have already lost so much more through time and history.
Well if he has to pay tarmac the road drains and street lighting the road has to be safe to use under a duty of care.
It would be worth checking the historical records for this track. It may be part of an old road, or there may be other documentation that sets out that the farmer has the legal right to use the track without paying rent to the crown estate.