Why royal business is booming for the Queen and Prince Charles
THE Queen’s taxpayer-funded income is to rise by 8.1 per cent to £82.2million in April next year – to help repair Buckingham Palace.
It will mean the cost of the Sovereign Grant, which supports the head of state and the occupied royal palaces, will have almost trebled in six years since it was established at £31million in 2012-13.
The Grant replaced the Civil List and government payments to cover travel and property maintenance.
Next year’s £82.2million settlement represents a cost of £1.25 per person in the country.
Last financial year, the £42.8million grant equated to 65p a head and this year’s £76.1million works out at £1.16.
The 91-year-old monarch will receive the cash boost thanks to an 8.1 per cent increase in profits to £328.8 million at the Crown Estate, a property company nominally owned by the sovereign.
Since 1760, the Crown Estate’s surpluses have been paid to the Treasury in return for the Government paying the costs of the state.
In March this year, MPs backed a Government call for the Queen’s grant to be calculated at the equivalent of 25 per cent of the Estate’s profits instead of the previous 15 per cent in order to find £369million over the next 10 years to pay for repairs to crumbling Buckingham Palace.
That vote saw the Sovereign Grant rocket from £42.8million in 2016-17 to £76.1million this financial year.
Repairs to the opulent State Dining Room Ceiling at the Palace have already cost £1.3million. The redwalled room was given a new lead roof, had plaster repairs, redecoration and ornate gilding work redone.
The new increase to £82.2million next year is thanks to booming Crown Estate profits from offshore wind farms, commercial property rents in central London, buying and selling property, and shopping centre developments across the country.
News of her fresh increase comes on the day that Palace officials released their annual accounts.
They show that to pay her bills in the year ending March 31, 2017, the Queen supplemented her £42.8million grant with a further £14.9million made by renting out properties on royal estates and fees for holding functions and letting tourists into
royal residences. In spite of annual controversies over the cost, aides insist the Royal Family represents good value for money, making 65 overseas visits last year and undertaking more than 3,000 official engagements in Britain and abroad.
Sir Alan Reid, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “In 2016-17 the Sovereign Grant equated to a cost of 65p per person in the United Kingdom – the price of a first-class stamp.
“When you consider that against what the Queen does and represents for this country, I believe it represents excellent value for money.”
Next year, that figure will rise to £1.25 for each of the UK’s 65.6 million population, although the grant is only one of several sources of funding for the Royal Family.
During last year the Queen celebrated her 90th birthday and she carried out 162 engagements in 2016-17.
Prince Philip, who is to retire from public duties after the summer, clocked up 196 engagements. He is still paid through the old Civil List and gets £359,000 a year.
Against the backdrop of the Duke of Cambridge soon leaving his job as an air ambulance helicopter pilot, Sir Alan added: “We can expect to see other members of the family doing even more to support the Queen.”
Anti-monarchy group Republic estimated yesterday that the true cost of the Royal Family is £345million, including security, the bill for local councils arranging royal visits, and other income from the monarchy’s landed estates which would be otherwise owned by the state.
Experts estimate the royals generate close to £500million for the country by bringing tourists to the UK.
Although the Sovereign Grant is calculated on the basis of Crown Estate profits, the sum cannot go down, and the money actually comes from tax revenues at the Treasury.
The Royal accounts revealed some eyebrow-raising journeys as the cost of the family’s travel increased by £500,000 to £4.5million over the previous year.
They included a five-day trip by Prince Andrew to Mozambique and Botswana in September that cost £56,470 in flights. There was also a £73,297 return charter flight by Prince Charles to attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres last September.
Charles made the most expensive journey by royal train – a two-day £46,000 trip from Windsor to Lancashire in March this year costing £95.32 per mile.
Prince Philip made an £18,690 trip to Plymouth on the royal train to attend a Royal Marines dinner.
The train, which is rolled out around 14 times per year, costs a minimum of £14,000 per journey and usually much more.
Senior members of the family usually travel overnight, using it as a mobile, secure hotel.
A source said the Queen, who signs off all royal travel, has been known to intervene if she considers a trip too expensive to take.
“She might have a word in the ear of the principal,” the source explained.
HER majesty the Queen represents extraordinary value for money. Next year her income is predicted to go up but even then she will still cost us only a little over £1 per person. Compare that with, for example, the amount the US spends on security, accommodation and logistics for the president and one begins to realise what a good deal we get.
Other nations would dearly wish to have a head of state who is respected around the world, attracts enormous numbers of tourists, provides sound advice to their elected leaders and connects the people with their history.
Given what we receive in return the cost of the Royal Family is undoubtedly money well spent.