Head of king’s property portfolio given 20% pay rise to £1.9m

King Charles’s property management company has given its chief executive a pay increase of almost 20% after tripling his pay packet over the previous three years.

The crown estate, the royals’ ancient portfolio of land and property across England and Wales that includes the seabed around its coasts, paid Dan Labbad almost £1.9m for the last financial year amid a rise in profits powered by offshore wind developments. 

As a result of that doubling of annual profits to £1.1bn over the year, the king is now in line for an increase of more than 50% in his official annual income to £132m in 2025-26, which will be used to support the official duties of the royal family.

Labbad’s latest payday is more than three and a half times the £517,000 he earned in 2019 when he stepped into the role, and more than three times the £622,000 paid to his predecessor Alison Nimmo in her final year in the job.

The 19.6% salary rise was revealed in the annual report of the crown estate, which has a mandate to return income to the Treasury “for the benefit of the nation”, alongside the doubling of annual profits.

The crown estate has benefited from the success of Britain’s offshore wind industry after demanding hefty option fees from renewable energy developers to secure areas of the seabed to build their windfarms.

The monarchy receives 12% of the crown estate profits to fund its work as well as to pay for the 10-year, £369m renovation of Buckingham Palace. The arrangement will be reviewed in 2026-27 to reassess the sum handed over to the palace and ensure it is an “appropriate level”.

The crown estate said the pay given to Labbad, which was well above the remuneration typically awarded to those who manage taxpayer funds, was benchmarked against the “lower quartile” of pay offered to FTSE bosses.

Its annual report said: “Our approach to chief executive pay and reward seeks to ensure that the crown estate can attract and retain a world-class leader from a diverse pool of eligible candidates, with the ability to lead an organisation that, in value terms, would rank in the top 50 companies of the FTSE 100 if it were publicly listed.

“At the same time, it recognises that some form of remuneration discount is appropriate in leading an organisation that serves the nation.”