Your bill to refurbish Kate’s palace now £4m
New kitchen, nursery and several bathrooms quadruples the cost
THE cost to taxpayers of refurbishing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Kensington Palace apartment has quadrupled – to £4million.
Building work on the 22-plus room home has soared by £3million in the last year and includes the bill for William and Kate’s new kitchen and several bathrooms, the Mail can reveal.
The vast project has seen Apartment 1A, which had been used as office space since the death of Princess Margaret, transformed into a ‘family home’.
Although the couple are personally paying for all fixtures and fittings like curtains, carpets and furniture, the cost of building their new bedroom and even Prince George’s nursery has come from
‘No running water’
the public purse. One courtier last night insisted that the Kensington Palace project actually offered taxpayers ‘great value’ given the state of the crumbling apartment.
But questions will be asked as to whether Buckingham Palace, which has forked out for the refurbishment, is spending public money wisely. Cuts to the Queen’s funding led to a dramatic battle between c ourtiers and t he previous Government.
Senior officials – who admitted at one point that the monarch was down to her last £1million in the bank – accused ministers of leaving them with a £40million backlog of essential work to royal residences.
Just a few years ago Princess Anne was almost hit by a piece of falling masonry in the crumbling courtyard at Buckingham Palace, while staff are regularly forced to use buckets to catch the rain from its leaky roof.
Following a comprehensive review of royal finances, the Queen now receives a Sovereign Grant to spend as she wishes on her residences and official duties. The sum was £37.9million in 2014-15.
The Mail understands that a ‘significant proportion’ of the money set aside for essential repairs and maintenance has been spent on William and Kate’s new home. MPs have already questioned the use of money on private accommodation after discovering that £1million had been spent in 2012/2013.
They were due to be told that the bill for Apartment 1A has spiralled to £4million, including VAT, when the Queen’s accounts are laid before Parliament on Wednesday.
But after being contacted by the Mail with the figures, Buckingham Palace was forced to reveal details of the full cost.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said the Palace is their ‘one and only official residence’, where they will live for ‘many years to come’. But it was last refurbished in 1963 and needed a ‘significant amount of work’ to make it habitable again.
He added: ‘The work included significant costs for the removal of asbestos, the installation of a new roof, the complete overhaul of electrics and plumbing and a significant amount of internal building work to return the residence to function as a living space.
‘ To put in perspective, there wasn’t even any running water.’ Because the palace is a Scheduled Ancient Moment, the refurbishment had to be of a high standard to meet English Heritage guide- lines. In 2012/13 initial internal refurbishments cost £600,000 and the renewal of the apartment’s roof a further £400,000. It was indicated that further costs were to come, but nothing approaching the final bill revealed today.
The couple, who also own Anmer Hall, a Norfolk country mansion given to them by the Queen, finally moved into the palace apartment last autumn after more than a year of building work.
Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, last night said the bill would not go down well with either Parliament or the public.
She said: ‘This is money coming out of the public purse at a time of great austerity and I am doubtful whether this is something the public would endorse. And with so many
‘Show more sensitivity’
people of the same age struggling to get on the property ladder, trying to scrape together a minimal deposit, then you would have thought they would show more sensitivity.’
But the spokesman for the couple insisted that they had done everything possible to keep the costs down, adding: ‘The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge paid privately for all the internal furnishing, including carpets and curtains. They were also at pains to ensure that the specification is not extravagant.’
A Buckingham Palace spokesman added: ‘ This is a major Royal Household project that is specifically being created, driven and owned by us, not them. It is essential they have a home and this needed to be made into one.
‘The vast majority of these costs have gone on simply trying to make it habitable again.’