The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), whose patron is King Charles, pays more than £60,000 a year in rent to the Crown Estate for dozens of its lifeboat stations.
Raising new questions about the cost of maintaining lifesaving services on real-owned land, according to a new report.
The Mail on Sunday reports that the charity is charged annual rent for 43 lifeboat stations and related facilities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The biggest bill comes from its busy station near Waterloo Bridge in central London, where the annual rent is said to be around £31,000.
After Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall announced last year that it would no longer charge rent for six RNLI stations on its land.
The decision scrapped more than £10,000 in annual fees following criticism over the duchy’s finances.
However, unlike the Duchy of Cornwall, the Crown Estate operates under different rules.
It manages large areas of Britain’s coastline and seabed on behalf of the nation and is legally obliged to generate revenue for the public purse.
The report also claims the RNLI paid £110,000 in 2013 to buy a small section of the Crown Estate seabed beneath a new lifeboat station at Mumbles Pier, near Swansea.
Despite the investment, the station has remained closed for more than three years due to safety concerns around the dock.
Former government minister Norman Bake criticized the arrangement under which the charity pays significant sums to operate some of its stations.
He said the King could use his position as patron to encourage a different approach or help ensure the charity does not face such costs.
Responding to criticism, the Crown Estate said it could not offer land at a loss because it had to deliver value to taxpayers.
