IT'S A GIFT OF A JOB

PRINCE Charles is to rent a warehouse and hire six staff including a "Presents Secretary" to deal with the unwanted gifts he gets every year.

The new secretary will keep a list of all royal treasures received.

The shake-up follows damning revelations that gifts were sold by staff or simply went missing.

Charles' senior aide Michael Fawcett was forced to quit after it was found he had "bent the rules" by accepting gifts from outside businesses.

It will now cost the Prince an extra pounds 250,000 a year to get his house in order.

Part of the costs may be paid for by job cuts among the 80 staff employed by the Duchy of Cornwall and Buckingham Palace. But the Prince will also have to cut back on his pounds 1m plans for doing up Clarence House that he hopes will be his new home by the end of the year.

As part of the enforced economies he has had to forget the gold leaf he chose as part of the decorations and use a cheaper bronze substitute. Charles also plans to cut back on the number of lavish dinner parties he throws to thank wealthy benefactors.

Senior palace aides revealed there was a culture of "anti admin and anti bureaucracy" in the Prince's office that had grown over the years.

"Charles is not supported by a properly developed organisation," one said.

"It does seem to have been a muddle here," private secretary Sir Michael Peat admitted last week.

It is also understood that part of the "serious failings" in the organisation of the Prince's office were inherited.

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