£40M ROYAL FLUSH
Queen handed huge rise to pay for Buckingham Palace repairs
THE Queen is set for a “pay rise” of almost £40million – as increases for nurses, firefighters and soldiers stay capped at one per cent.
The Sovereign Grant will soar £39.4million to £82.2million next year, up from £42.8million last year, after being hiked by the Tories to pay for Buckingham Palace repairs.
The Royal Family splashed out £56.8million in the 12 months to March, £41.9million of which was funded by taxpayers, the rest coming from other income including property rents.
Their spending rose 5.8 per cent – double the inflation rate – from £53.7million the year before.
Travel made up £4.5million of it, up £500,000 from the previous 12 months.
Prince Charles’s nine-day spring trip to Romania, Italy and Austria aboard the RAF Voyager an estimated £154,000, the Sovereign Grant Report revealed.
A trip on the Royal Train to Devon so Prince Philip – Captain General of the Royal Marines – could dine at their Stonehouse Barracks cost £18,690.
Prince Charles used the luxury train for a £46,000 two-day visit to Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Flights taken by Prince Andrew cost £115,291, including a £36,000 charter plane trip to Turkey and a £28,000 private jet hire in South Africa. Only journeys costing more than £15,000 were itemised in the report. There were 213 helicopter journeys and 56 charter flights that cost less.
Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir lan Reid said it cost everyone in the UK 65p a year. He added: “I believe it represents excellent value for money.”
But Graham Smith, of Republic who want to see the monarchy abolished, said: “It’s all cost and no gain. It’s time for a value-forcost money, effective, democratic head of state.”
The taxpayer-funded grant to cover royals’ expenses is set at a percentage of Crown Estate profits.
It was 15 per cent from 2012 until last year, when it was raised to 25 per cent for 10 years to fund £369million repairs to the palace
That lifted the grant to £76.1million this year. It will be further boosted next year by record Crown Estate profits.
It’s time for a value-for-money, effective, democratic head of state GRAHAM SMITH