Cash-strapped royal trust loaned £22m to offset lockdown losses

THE Royal Collection Trust has arranged a £ 22 million loan from Coutts after the Covid-19 pandemic devastated its income from tourism, it says in its annual report.

The charity, which looks after the Queen’s art collection and official residences, is expected to lose more than £60 million in 2020-21, after palaces closed to tourists during lockdown.

It has frozen pay and recruitment, changed its programme of exhibitions and entered negotiations with the Royal Household over payments due.

Its annual report confirmed the loan, and the trust has already drawn £15 million, with the remainder due in December. It is hoped the funds will get the charity through the coronavirus measures and the impact of its losses.

The Royal Household has agreed to defer £6.4 million in fees for a year.

The trust has drawn up a five-year recovery plan as it expects visitor numbers to recover slowly. It has reduced “staff numbers and pension costs” but has begun to reopen its tours and exhibitions. The charity is responsible for public access to Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s Gallery and Royal Mews, Windsor Castle, Frogmore House, Clarence House and the Palace of Holyrood, all of which reopened in the summer with safety precautions in place.

“The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have had a significant impact,” the report stated. Its sites and shops closed from March 21 to July 23, and the Buckingham Palace summer exhibition was cancelled.

The trust added: “It is anticipated that £64 million of income will be lost in 2020-21 as a consequence of the pandemic.” The report noted however that much of the year had been successful, with record visitors at the Queen’s Gallery, thanks largely to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition.

Tourism at Windsor Castle dropped from 1.74 million to 1.59 million visitors, and Frogmore House received 500,000 visits, down 200,000. Visits to Bucking ham Palace rose by 5,000 to 578,000, while trips to the Queen’s Gallery leapt from 198,000 to 266,000.

The trust is not the only royal-related charity to have been hit by the pandemic. Historic Royal Palaces announced job cuts after a £100 million drop in income. The Royal Household itself faces a £35 million shortfall.