Cost of Queen rises amid Palace refurbishment

THE Queen’s annual expenditure soared by around 13% as a decadelong programme of renovations began at Buckingham Palace.

The taxpayer funds received by the monarchy to pay for official duties and other expenditure – the Sovereign Grant – rose from £41.9m to £47.4m, with payroll costs, travel and property maintenance all increasing compared with the previous year.

There was a 16% rise in the Queen’s own income to supplement the core Sovereign Grant, which equated to £45.7m for the financial year to spring 2018.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the figure represented an operational cost of 69p per man, woman and child in the UK, up from 65p last year.

It does not include the £30.4m additionally siphoned off from the Crown Estate profits to help towards the £369m improvements to Buckingham Palace.

Separate figures show the Crown Estate provided £329.4m to the Treasury, a like-for-like increase of around 4% compared with last year’s figures for England only.

According to the Buckingham Palace data, the Queen’s net expenditure rose £5.5m to £47.4m for the year 2017-18.

To help pay for the £369m refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, the percentage of the Crown Estate profits paid to the Sovereign Grant increased, for the first time, from 15% to 25% for the next decade. The cost of work to renovate other royal residences also rose – from £17.8m to £22.6m.

The Sovereign Grant for 2018-19 will be £82.2m – a core of £49.3m, plus an additional £32.9m for resurfacing the palace.