Thursday, Sep 09, 2010
Home-Owner-Ist Fail Of The Week
The Daily Mail: Prince Charles, a £20m loan and a headache for his charity: Bad property deal saddles foundation with serious debt
The Prince of Wales has put his charitable foundation under strain after agreeing a bad property deal that is now draining funds away from his other good causes, it has been disclosed. A £20million loan taken out in 2007 to help save Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, Scotland, for the nation has left the Prince's Charities Foundation a victim of the property market crash. The £43million purchase of Dumfries House has saddled the foundation, which is supposed to channel money into his charities, with a multi-million debt.
Posted by mark wadsworth @ 05:14 PM (729 views) Add Comment
11 Comments
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1. Crunchy said...
Now we are getting a little closer to the scale of our plight.
The King of the Land?
2. jack c said...
"Some of the Prince's advisors have admitted the £43million purchase of Dumfries House may have been somewhat 'rash'. In fact, the Prince bought Dumfries House without even seeing it"
I'll say no more in case I'm hauled off to the tower!
3. Crunchy said...
I hear the haunted house, may have a lady in residence.
4. icarus said...
He didn't see it but was determined that 'this important and wonderful asset' should be saved for the nation. And why didn't the National Trust take it over? And what does this mean - "we thought carefully about it (before the purchase?) because the risk has partially gone wrong (after the purchase?)"?
5. jack c said...
Severin Carrell and Maev Kennedy The Guardian, Thursday 28 June 2007 Article history
One of Britain's most significant architectural jewels, a stately home near Glasgow which boasts a unique collection of Chippendale furniture, has been saved for the nation after a last-minute intervention by Prince Charles. He engineered a £45m deal to prevent Dumfries House in East Ayrshire and its contents from being split up and sold off by its owner, the Marquess of Bute..............................
SOURCE www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jun/28/artnews.monarchy
6. icarus said...
Interesting choice of words in the Mail and Gaurdian reports - the hice would be sold to Prince Charles or 'sold off'' to anyone else. And why would the furniture etc. be worth more 'broken up' and 'sold off' than it would if left in situ and sold as hice+ furniture&fittings?
7. Arthur Kinnell said...
Actually, one quite admires the French.
8. Crunchy said...
"One of Britain's most significant architectural jewels, a stately home near Glasgow which boasts a unique collection of Chippendale furniture, has been saved for the nation after a last-minute intervention by Prince Charles."
Now I'm getting worried. Not another bail out!
9. mark wadsworth said...
WTF is all this "saved for the nation" crap about?
It's a house in a field built by slave owners to taunt the local peasants. If some rich Arab wants to buy it, he'll either leave it in situ (in which case, no change, we've lost nothing) or dismantle it brick by brick and ship it abroad - generating loads of jobs in the local dismantling industry (yippee).
10. Crunchy said...
5. mark wadsworth said...'WTF is all this "saved for the nation" crap about?'
I may have answered that earlier. Not posting in real time.
Socialise the loses?
11. the number cruncher said...
MW - my thoughts exactly
I worked for the National Trust for a couple of years and after careful consideration I would say they they are run by a bunch of upper class pr*cks who Sp*nk public money on the walls like there is no tomorrow, far worse than any public servant.