Two Kitchens Kate!
Bill for palace renovation rockets to add room for cosy suppers
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have installed a second kitchen in their new Kensington Palace apartment, it was revealed yesterday.
The existing 350 sq ft kitchen, originally designed by Princess Margaret’s husband, Lord Snowdon, has been refurbished at a reported cost to taxpayers of £170,000.
But William and Kate also wanted a ‘private, family kitchen’ in the fourstorey, 20-plus room home.
The cost of reconfiguring the room from existing office space has also fallen to the public purse, but officials stressed last night that the second kitchen itself, as well as all fixtures and fittings, were paid for by the couple.
Asked whether Prince Charles might have helped his son pay for the new kitchen, a Clarence House spokesman said: ‘ Many young couples when doing up houses seek help from their parents or grandparents. There may have been some assistance.’
Details of t he Cambridges’ domestic arrangements were revealed yesterday in an annual briefing on the Royal Family’s finances, where it was disclosed that the Queen is to receive a generous 5 per cent rise in public funding next year.
A new deal with the Government means the amount of money given to the Queen to undertake her public duties and the upkeep of all royal residences is now being taken from a single pot of money known as the Sovereign Grant, which she can spend as she wishes.
This is drawn from a 15 per cent slice of the profits of the Crown Estate, a portfolio of land, holdings and investments worth more than £9 billion, that was handed to the Government by the Crown two centuries ago. Record profits means the monarch’s income will i ncrease f rom £ 36.1 million in 2013/14 to an inflation-busting £37.9 million in 2014/15. But aides insist the monarchy still offers good value for money – just 56p per person each year, or just over 1p per week.
‘We try to get the best value as possible from the public funds entrusted to us,’ said the Queen’s ‘money man’, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Alan Reid.
Inevitably, however, it is how her family spends that money that will come under most scrutiny.
Yesterday palace officials confirmed that the total public bill for renovations on Apartment 1A, the new home of the future king and his wife which takes up more than half of one of the palace’s wings, had spiralled to more than £4 million. Adding the cost of removing asbestos from the property takes the bill closer to £4.5 million.
Officials said the couple had agreed that the basic cost for the restorations should come from the public purse, but they would pay for anything above that – including curtains, carpets and furniture. One aide said: ‘ The Cambridges were actually extremely sensitive to the fact that public funds were being used to pay for a lot of this work. They understood that it would be a drain on public expenditure and they wanted to minimise that.
‘It is not done out to lavish standards. You would be surprised at what an ordinary level the apartment has been done to. Comfortable, but an ordinary level of furnishing.’
It is understood that all works were approved by the Queen.