Prince William's first 'big mistake' pinpointed by expert, as heir told 'more to be done'

Prince William, hugely popular along with Kate in the UK and abroad, has shown little sign of wanting to be as controversial as his father was so far. But aides insist he is keen to use the greater latitude traditionally given to Princes of Wales to campaign on issues dear to him, including climate change, conservation, the mental health crisis affecting a generation of young Britons, and trying to end homelessness.

“I think there has been a real step up in the way he has approached his role,” a senior aide said, noting particularly the message William gave in March while visiting British and Polish troops protecting NATO’s eastern flank on the border with Ukraine.

“He talked about them defending our freedoms. I don’t think you would have heard him using those sort of words before he became Prince of Wales,” the aide said.

“I also think when you look at the visit to Boston in November you can see his evolution from Duke of Cambridge to Prince of Wales. He’s becoming the global statesman his father was, with the President of the United States flying up to see him.”

William’s £50 million Earthshot Prize, an attempt to encourage green innovation -as an alternative to cutting travel and trade - to reduce carbon pollution and prevent irreversible climate change, is garnering increasing international attention.

Now he also has the chance to put his ideas into practice on the £1 billion Duchy of Cornwall estate, which he inherited with a £24 million a year income when his father became King.

He wants to build social housing on Duchy land to help solve the homelessness crisis but is yet to set out any detailed plans.

His hereditary estate is also starting to use some of the products he has championed in the Earthshot Prize. The Oval, the Test cricket ground and home of Surrey County Cricket Club which is owned by the Duchy, is now using food packaging made from seaweed by a company called Notpla to help reduce plastic pollution for instance.

William and Kate’s step up has not produced a similar increase in the volume of their public engagements though and, although they are clearly huge assets to the monarchy, their work ethic has become a source of frustration to some who work for the Royal Family.

Kate, 41, has made it clear that her children will be her priority for the foreseeable future and most work, including her efforts to encourage a national debate that leads to a better start for children in their first five years,has to be fitted around them.

William too has taken just about every school holiday off with his children, prompting criticism in some quarters and support from others who point to the disrupted, damaged childhood both he and Harry suffered after their parents’ marriage breakdown and everything else that ensued.

If Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis become happy, well-adjusted adults then some might argue that is the most important task for their parents.

But few other families can enjoy perhaps 12 or 13 weeks off together each year and there is important work for the couple to do now, some insiders argue.

Their campaigning style of work takes more planning, research, and thought than perhaps some more traditional types of royal engagements but William’s father managed to do both in much greater volumes than he and Kate have managed so far.

There is a recognition in the Royal Household that there is more to be done, particularly after what looks like William’s first big mistake in his new role.

Many expected him, as president of the Football Association, or at least someone from the Royal Family to go to Australia to support the Lionesses in their World Cup Final, a landmark moment in the rise of women’s sport in this country.

On holiday in Norfolk with his family, he decided not to go, arguing that after not visiting Australia since 2014 it would look bad to just travel all that way for a football match. If he extended it to a few days, his staff feared New Zealand, co-host of the World Cup, wound be miffed if he did not visit there too.

Having seen the Prince and the wider family targeted for criticism by England’s 1966 World Cup hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst, politicians including a former sports minister and the leader of the Women’s Equality Party, friends appear to acknowledge that he and his advisers got it wrong.

Friends expect him to try to make up for it by working hard to support the English women’s game in the coming months.

“It’s going to be a busy autumn,” a royal aide said.