King Charles charging NHS hospital £11million in rent as alarming details emerge

Bombshell documents reveal the duchy is earning £830,000 a year from renting a two-storey warehouse to Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust in London.

The unprecedented audit of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Prince of Wales's private estate, shows taxpayers are paying millions every year to boost the wealth of the senior royals.

As well as the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, local authorities and other public bodies are increasing the funds of the Duchies, according to the most recent Channel 4 Dispatches investigation.

Charities, even those where the King is patron, are also stumping up millions, the five-month investigation claims.

The revelations come as struggling Britons were hit by Chancellor Rachel Reeves's £40billion tax hike budget last week.

This will likely spark renewed debate about how much tax the royals should pay, and how secretive they are about their operations.

Duchy money is private income for Charles and William on top of the Sovereign Grant, which will pay the Royal Family £132million next year, up 50 per cent on this year.

The Duchies are run as commercial enterprises, but pay no capital gains tax or corporation tax.

Both Charles and William do pay income tax, but it is not clear how much.

Dame Margaret Hodge, former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, led calls for greater transparency of royal finances and for the tax regime to be tightened up.

She said: "I'd love King Charles to volunteer that he would open up the affairs of all these organisations to much greater public scrutiny at a time when people are feeling poor. It's taxpayers' money."

The Duchy of Lancaster, which last year generated £27.4million for the King, and the Duchy of Cornwall, which raised £23.6million for William, are not required to pay business taxes.

Both estates claim they are not funded by the taxpayer, but the cache of documents obtained by Dispatches lays bare the huge income they receive from public services.

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In response, the Duchy of Cornwall said it is "a private estate with a commercial imperative... committed to restoring the natural environment".

The Duchy added that it was "acting in a responsible and sustainable way" on mining.

In addition, the Duchy of Lancaster said it "operates as a commercial company" and "complies with all relevant UK legislation".