Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 12 issues for just £12!
Subscribe today
Housing

Here's what would happen if Prince William opened up royal palaces to homeless people

More than half of people want Prince William to open the royal palaces up for the homeless. Big Issue has found that it would help thousands.

Prince William launches Homewards

Prince William launches Homewards in 2023. Image: The Royal Foundation

Slap-bang in the centre of London, there’s a huge bit of very fancy housing that barely gets used. The problem is, Buckingham Palace currently belongs to the crown.

Suggestions to open royal palaces up for the homeless are nothing new, but they’re now gaining ground. More half (52%) of people would support William using Buckingham Palace, and other royal palaces, to get people off the streets, a new poll by Savanta for Yahoo! News has found.

After all, his Homewards initiative is a big, public commitment to ending homelessness. So how much of a difference would flinging the doors open make?

We crunched the numbers, assuming the total floor space of the most prominent palaces is being converted into studio flats for a single person, meeting the minimum space standards of 39 square metres.

Thousands could be housed if Prince William opened up the royal palaces to homeless people. (Big Issue)

Buckingham Palace alone could fit 1,974 studio flats into its 77,000 square metres, getting some way to taking care of the estimated 10,000 rough sleepers on London’s streets.

Using the same maths for Windsor Castle, Balmoral, the Palace of Holyrood, and Sandringham, almost 3,500 people could have a home.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

It’d make a small dent in helping the 271,000 people experiencing homelessness in England. And that’s before we get to the rest of the chronic empty homes problem in the country, with the number of long-term empty properties rising by 24% in the last six years.

Meanwhile, the government is set to miss its manifesto promise to end rough sleeping by 2024 as the cost-of-living crisis pushes more people into homelessness.

“The government does have a commitment to end rough sleeping, but the kind of action needed behind it, the political leadership, isn’t happening,” said Jasmine Basran, head of policy and campaigns at homelessness charity Crisis.

Of course, we’ve always known there’s a way to fix the problem – just maybe not the Wills.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

It's our call to Keir Starmer to pass a law to end poverty.
big issue vendor holding up a 'we need a poverty zero law' sign

Recommended for you

View all
Sick gran stuck in bed bug-infested flat nine months after GP ordered her to be moved
Bed bugs

Sick gran stuck in bed bug-infested flat nine months after GP ordered her to be moved

Community housing project offering affordable homes forever up for a prestigious architecture award
Citizens House in Lewisham
Housing

Community housing project offering affordable homes forever up for a prestigious architecture award

Disabled Big Issue vendor Jason has fought 21 years for an accessible home. There are millions like him
Our Vendors

Disabled Big Issue vendor Jason has fought 21 years for an accessible home. There are millions like him

Rough sleeping in London 'nowhere near on track' to end by 2030
a homeless person lying on a bench
Rough sleeping

Rough sleeping in London 'nowhere near on track' to end by 2030

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know

Support our vendors with a subscription

For each subscription to the magazine, we’ll provide a vendor with a reusable water bottle, making it easier for them to access cold water on hot days.