Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry.”
Clive Betts, 74, a Labour member of the group, said navigating a potential summons for a royal would be unprecedented.
He added: “You’re talking about members of the Royal Family and there aren’t, I don’t think, precedents – there aren’t rules.
“The committee will look at the situation as it is. It will look at the situation with regard to the individual who’s been renting Royal Lodge.”
According to lease documents, Windsor paid almost $1.8million for the tenure on the Lodge in 2003 and later spent $11.4million on renovations.
His nominal rent of “one peppercorn per annum, if demanded” has prompted concerns over the royal family’s notoriously secretive financial set-up, with the Crown Estate managing $20 billion in land.
Comparative leases reveal Prince William and Princess Catherine, both 43, pay open-market rent for Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
Prince Edward, 61, agreed to $120,000 a year for Bagshot Park in 1998, while Princess Alexandra, 88, holds a 150-year lease on Thatched House Lodge at a rising rent that will reach only $8,000 annually.
