The Crown Estate's sale of a historic Somerset estate to housebuilder has been accused of costing the taxpayer millions of pounds.
A historic 1,100-acre Somerset estate, the Orchard Portman Estate, situated near Taunton on the fringes of the Blackdown Hills, was bought by Taylor Wimpey for £12.5 million in 2018.
The land, comprising undeveloped farmland with roots stretching back to the 15th century, was sold without an uplift clause – a standard clause that would have entitled the Crown Estate a share of the value, should it increase in the future.
As an independent commercial enterprise overseeing property and land across Britain, the Crown Estate divides its profits between the public purse and the monarch through the sovereign grant.
Newly revealed proposals for a vast new residential development on the land – dubbed "Taunton Garden Village" – have intensified the controversy.
The plans see up to 7,000 homes on the former Crown Estate land, which campaigners estimate could boost its worth up to £560million.
Had a standard 25 per cent uplift clause been included in the original transaction, the public would have stood to reclaim a whopping £140million of that windfall.
The development plans have not yet been submitted for formal planning consent – they came to light after the Save Blackdown Vale campaign group acquired documents through a freedom of information request.
Rob Hossell, a member of the campaign group, told The Times: "We thought this was very unusual at the time, particularly after speaking to a number of planning professionals, none of whom could recall a comparable sale of land without an uplift/overage clause."
He added: "There needs to be full accountability for the decisions surrounding the original sale. The Crown Estate manages a substantial public asset and its profits ultimately benefit the public finances."
Mr Hossell insisted it was "entirely reasonable to ask whether the public interest was adequately protected when the sale was agreed", urging that the circumstances of the transaction be "properly examined".
Fellow campaigner Colin Fisher, also of Save Blackdown Vale, argued the deal "exposes all sorts of flaws in the governance of the Crown Estate".
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Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, has written to the public accounts committee demanding a full inquiry into the transaction – reviving a campaign he first pursued when the sale originally attracted scrutiny.
"The campaign [for transparency] culminated in my bid to get parliament to investigate the sale; unfortunately, MPs on the public accounts committee at the time decided not to do so," he said.
Mr Amos added: "Now chickens are coming home to roost with the development that was always going to be proposed following a sale of this kind."
The backbencher cautioned the proposed 7,000-home scheme "could mean a new town of 15,000-plus people across the motorway from Taunton, which could overwhelm the balanced development we would all want to see in our county".
"That's why I have now written to the powerful public accounts committee again to call for a full investigation to take place," he added.
Both the Crown Estate and Taylor Wimpey have defended the deal.
Following earlier public pressure, the sale underwent an internal review as well as an independent examination by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Both concluded no policies or procedures had been breached and that the land was disposed of through a competitive market process.
The Crown Estate stated the sale price "exceeded both expectations and book value at the time".
Taylor Wimpey said: "Taylor Wimpey strongly refutes any allegations of wrongdoing in relation to the land acquisition; it was a competitive, open-market sales process. An independent Rics investigation concluded in 2021 and found no material or actionable failings."
The developer confirmed it had submitted proposals for Taunton Garden Village to Somerset Council's local plan call for sites, adding that it engages "extensively with local stakeholders to understand their views and requirements".
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