Queen gets 22% pay rise over two years
But she is down to her last £1million in the bank!
THE Queen is set to receive an i nflation- busting 22 per cent ‘ pay rise’ over the next two years, figures show.
But she is said to be down to her last £1million in the bank, leaving her vulnerable to unexpected costs, a report has said.
She i s now expected to be given £37.9million in 2014-15 to run her household and conduct official engagements, up from £31million in 2012-13.
The figures were released yesterday by the National Audit Office, which for the first time has been allowed to examine all aspects of the Queen’s funding as Head of State.
The report recommends the increase. But it also highlights what it describes as ‘significant reductions’ in the monarchy’s funding over the past 20 years.
It says that grants for royal travel on official engagements at home and abroad have been slashed by 76 per cent in real terms.
The amount provided for the maintenance of royal palaces, including Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, was similarly reduced by an 60 per cent.
According to the NAO, this has left a huge backlog in property maintenance, with 39 per cent of occupied royal palaces being deemed below their ‘target condition’.
To cope with the shortfall the Queen’s money men have been dramatically scaling back their spending, reducing net expenditure by 55 per cent in real terms.
According to the figures, that led to real-term expenditure of £32.9 million in 2011-2012, compared with £72.6million in 1991-92.
The Queen has also repeatedly eaten into her savings – known as ‘drawing
‘Massive backlog of repairs’
down on reserves’ – over the years and is, apparently, down to her last £1million in the bank.
The NAO, which scrutinises public spending for Parliament and is independent of government, says this poses serious questions about the household’s ability to cope in an unexpected crisis if, say, the roof of Buckingham Palace fell down.
It said: ‘As part of its long-term planning the Household may need to consider whether the Reserve is adequate to meet unexpected costs.’
The NAO report will be put before parliament’s powerful Public Accounts Committee on Monday as part of its investigation into royal finances.
Until last year the monarch was funded by a complicated combination of civil list payments and government grants. But following an extensive review of royal finances by the Government, the Queen now receives one single pot of money known as the Sovereign Grant.
She can spend this largely as she wishes, on anything from funding her office to repairing the palace roof.
The Sovereign Grant is taken from the Crown Estate, a wealthy portfolio of agricultural land, buildings and property which ranges from a retail park in Liverpool to London’s Regent Street.
Historically it belonged to the monarch but, since the reign of George III, its profits have gone to the Treasury.
As a result of protracted negotiations with Downing Street, the monarch is now, for the first time in two centuries, entitled to keep 15 per cent of its profits with the rest going to the Treasury.
This year the Crown Estate announced record revenue of £253million.
Its entire holdings are now worth an astonishing £8.1billion and the NAO says that profits are likely to continue to rise, meaning the Queen will enjoy further increases in funding to come.
The palace insists most of its extra cash will be spent on a ‘massive backlog’ of repairs to royal pal- aces, which the Queen holds in trust on behalf of the nation.
It has long complained of having to put off millions of pounds worth of essential repairs due to those real-term falls in funding.
Buckets are frequently used to catch water leaks in the picture gallery, while none of the state rooms has been decorate for more than six decades.
The NAO report also highlights the royal household’s efforts to increase income through moneyspinning schemes such as renting out its facilities for commercial events. This has generated a 54 per cent rise in profits – £11.6million last year alone.
Elsewhere the report reveals that the Queen’s 436 staff cost her £19.5million a year, although anyone earning more than £21,000 has had their pay frozen since 2011 in an attempt to cut bills.
Last year the Royal Family spent £4.5million on travel, a real term reduction of 30 per cent in the last decade, as they were told to stop using private jets and take scheduled flights instead.
In each of the past six years, on average, the Queen has conducted more than 300 engagements, six garden parties and more than 26 investitures. Other royals have undertaken 3,000 trips.