More than 350,000 people in Britain lack a permanent home. The number of homeless people, or at risk, aged between 16 and 24 is estimated to have risen to more than 130,000….reports Asian Lite News
Prince William has said criticism about his privileged lifestyle and many residences drives him to try to end homelessness in Britain.
The heir to the throne was challenged to respond to jibes about his three homes and 135,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate for a two-part ITV documentary airing this week.
In Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, viewers hear a recording of LBC radio host James O’Brien citing criticism from Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, the anti-monarchist group, who says homelessness is about government policy and investment, and won’t be stopped by charity or royal patronage.
Asked how he feels about the criticism of Homewards, his five-year programme designed to show others how homelessness can be ended, William says: “I think if I answered every critic, I’d be here all day. But you know, criticism drives you forward.”
He adds: “I think it’s right to question but I think, ultimately, we are pushing forward to deliver change and hope and optimism into a world that frankly has had very little of it for a long time. I hope I can bring something that’s not been done before.”
The documentary, which airs on Wednesday and Thursday, follows him through the first year after launching Homewards. William is seen touring Nansledan, near Newquay, where the duchy is building 24 homes.
“I’m not sitting here saying I’m going to solve the entire world’s homelessness problems. But I am going to show people how to prevent homelessness,” he says.
More than 350,000 people in Britain lack a permanent home. The number of homeless people, or at risk, aged between 16 and 24 is estimated to have risen to more than 130,000.
The prince tells the documentary team he has discussed homelessness with his three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis on the school run. In Windsor, where they live, the local council was dealing earlier this year with 101 homelessness cases and there were 25 rough sleepers.
“The first few times I thought, do I bring this up? Or should I wait and see if any of them noticed? And sure enough, they did, and they were just sort of in silence after I had said what was going on,” he tells the film-makers. “And I do think it’s really important that you start those conversations when the children are small, so that they understand the world around them and they’re not just living, you know, in their own little worlds.”
King to resume regular overseas trips in 2025
King Charles will return to regular overseas trips next year after the hiatus from official foreign duties he has taken since his cancer diagnosis, a palace official said.
Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits, provided that doctors approve the travel.
Speaking at the conclusion of the king and queen’s nine-day visit to Australia and Samoa on Saturday, a senior palace official said: “We’re now working on a pretty normal-looking full overseas tour programme for next year. “Which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms, subject to signoff by doctors.”
Charles has been receiving treatment as an outpatient for an undisclosed form of cancer since early February and initially postponed all public-facing duties, continuing to work behind the scenes.
The trip to Australia and Samoa, which was the king’s first long-distance visit since his cancer diagnosis, had originally included New Zealand in the itinerary but this was ruled out on the advice of his doctors. The king and queen undertook up to 10 engagements a day which were tailored specifically to accommodate periods of rest and included only one evening event.
The palace official added: “I think it’s great testament to the king’s devotion to service and duty that he was prepared to come this far and he was incredibly happy and very, very determined to do so.” The king “genuinely loved” the tour and “genuinely thrived” on the Australian and Samoan programme, the official added, as it lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery. “In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic.”
He added the monarch takes great strength from the Queen being there, not least because she “keeps it real”. There were some protests during the five-day visit to Australia including the monarch being heckled by the Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe after addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra. Thorpe yelled at him: “This is not your country.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.”
Meanwhile, King Charles III’s remote private estate in the Scottish Highlands could become an exclusive location for weddings, if an application to the local council is approved.
Documents submitted for consideration next week by the licencing board of Aberdeenshire Council outline plans to allow “weddings, dinners, meetings and associated events” at the Queen’s Building on the royal Balmoral Estate.
The Queen’s Building lies just north of Balmoral Castle near the estate office and stables, and was built in the 1980s as staff quarters and a canteen. It was converted last year to accommodate dining for visitors.
If approved at next Wednesday’s licencing board meeting, the venue could host up to 277 guests inside, with a further 144 on an outside patio. Permission to sell alcohol and play music is also part of the application, which was submitted on April 30, the documents showed.
“These events may involve live performances and dancing, where alcohol may be sold up to 12:30 am. These events will be rare throughout the year,” the application added. Balmoral, set in 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of sprawling grouse moors, forest and farmland, is located around 50 miles (31 kilometres) west of Aberdeen and was the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite royal residence.
She died there on September 8, 2022, aged 96 after a period of ill health. Privately owned by the monarch, the castle was bought by Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert in the mid-19th century and has since become a favoured summer retreat for the royals.
Its grounds have been open to the public for many years and provision for tourists has gradually increased in recent times, with holiday cottages and Land Rover tours of the estate.
ALSO READ: Pakistan’s Diplomatic Crisis: The Fraying Partnership with China in 2024