Queen makes a record £21.7m from private estate

THE Queen made a record £21.7million from her private estate the Duchy of Lancaster last year, a rise of £1.5 million from the year before.

The value of the estate, which includes swathes of farmland, Lancaster castle, office blocks and a chunk of Lancashire’s coastline, rose by 3 per cent to £548million in the year to March.

The Duchy of Lancaster has been the monarch’s private estate since 1399. It is exempt from paying corporation tax, but the Queen voluntarily pays tax on her income from it.

Nathan Thompson, chief executive, said it had been offering up more land for development to help tackle the country’s housing shortage.

The Duchy sold £8.4million of land and property, making £1.8 million of profits. It spent £2.3million on new properties and invested £6.8million in repairs and upgrades.

Accounts for the Sovereign Grant, which funds the Queen and her household’s official expenses, were published in June and showed the monarchy cost the taxpayer £67million during 2018-19 – an increase of almost £20 million on the previous year.

A large amount of the rise was due to updating Buckingham Palace and maintaining occupied royal palaces.