Again, it’s Disclosure Week for the British monarchy. They waited until the Windsors were heading off for their three-month summer holiday to drop all of their financial disclosures, or their lack of disclosures in Prince William’s case. The big headline for Buckingham Palace is that they’re making even more money than ever, mostly from their vast royal real estate holdings and from wind farms on “royal” land. As such, the Sovereign Grant is increasing too.
King Charles is set for a huge £45m pay rise with an increase of more than 50% in his official annual income, official accounts reveal. Profits of £1.1bn from the crown estate – a percentage of which funds the monarchy – mean the sovereign grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family, will rise from £86m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26.
The monarchy currently receives 12% of the crown estate profits to fund its work as well as to fund the 10-year, £369m renovation of Buckingham Palace. Royal aides said the increase will be used to complete the palace reservicing programme by 2027. The sovereign grant will be reviewed in 2026-27 to reassess the amount handed over to the palace and ensure it is an “appropriate level”.
The significant increase in the sovereign grant in 2025-6 and 2026-7 “will be used to fund the final stages of the Buckingham Palace reservicing programme, enabling it to be complete both on time and on budget,” said Michael Stevens, the king’s Keeper of the Privy Purse.
Once this is accomplished, he said “a reduction in the absolute amount of the sovereign grant will be sought as part of the royal trustees review in 2026-27, through primary legislation”, to ensure that the work of the royal family “continues to be funded at an appropriate level”.
Don’t hate me but I sort of understand the scheme they’re running and it makes sense to me? They’re telling the government to keep the Sovereign Grant percentage where it is for the time being because they’re still paying for the hugely expensive refurbishment/reno of Buckingham Palace, a decade-long undertaking. Now, it’s also funny because as soon as Charles saw all of that money coming in, he was like: we need new helicopters!!
King Charles is set to replace his 15-year-old helicopters this year as income from the Crown Estates soared to £1.1 billion last year.
The money is spent on running the royal household and helping the monarchy function effectively. One aspect funded by the grant is the family’s transport costs to formal engagements.
In total more than 170 helicopter journeys costing a total of over £1b were taken in the last year. The palace revealed that these will now be replaced with two brand new AgustaWestland AW139s.
Other areas the crown plans to invest in is the eco-friendly overhaul of the monarchy. Windsor Castle has already had solar panels installed while two of the King’s State Bentleys are being converted to run on biofuel.
Royal travel costs soared by hundreds of thousands of pounds last year despite fewer engagements due to the illness of the King and Princess of Wales, figures show. The Sovereign Grant report revealed travel expenditure went up by £300,000 at a bill of £4.2m despite there being around 400 fewer visits and less foreign travel than the year before.
I would guess that the travel costs rose because Charles and Camilla travel with so many staffers and there’s so much stage-management for all of their events. As for the new helicopters… if the choppers are really 15 years old, then yeah, they should be replaced. But I’m irritated that there’s not more energy towards forcing the Crown to disclose helicopter and private plane usage and miles logged.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- London, 17th July 2024. King Charles III and Queen Camilla ride in a state coach, escorted by a Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, for the King’s Speech and State Opening of Parliament, the main ceremonial event in the parliamentary calendar, on the first day of the session.,Image: 890305443, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- London, UK, 17 July 2024. King Charles III in the company of Queen Camilla returns to Buckingham Palace after the UK Government State Opening of Parliament in London, UK.,Image: 890311367, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Lee Floyd / Avalon
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- London, UK, 17 July 2024: London, UK, 17 July 2024: King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the State Opening of Parliament in London.,Image: 890314372, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jack Hill / Avalon
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- London, UK, 17 July 2024: London, UK, 17 July 2024: King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the State Opening of Parliament in London.,Image: 890314380, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Hannah McKay / Avalon
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- Britain’s King Charles wears the Imperial State Crown and Queen Camilla wears the Diamond Diadem during a ceremony on the day of the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Britain, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah,Image: 890314388, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Hannah McKay / Avalon
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- Britain’s King Charles wears the Imperial State Crown and Queen Camilla wears the Diamond Diadem during a ceremony on the day of the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Britain, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah,Image: 890314414, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Hannah McKay / Avalon
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- Britain’s King Charles wears the Imperial State Crown on the day of the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London, Britain, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah,Image: 890314422, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Hannah McKay / Avalon
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- London, UK, 17 July 2024: London, UK, 17 July 2024: King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the State Opening of Parliament in London.,Image: 890315459, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jack Hill / Avalon
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- London, UK. Activists from Campaign Group Republic, staged a protest in Whitehall to coincide with the State Opening of Parliament 2024 by King Charles III.,Image: 890335430, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Michael Melia / Avalon
True eco warrior, that bio fuel Bentley will help so many🙄.. not to mention the new helicopters why settle for one when the starving children want you to have a matched set. This greedy and gluttonous King being the head of the Church of England is truly unbelievable.
It is truly vile considering that they are show ponies. They show up at events where their presence is not required and does nothing.
But people get outraged if RF members aren’t scheduling enough dog and pony shows, even though the only benefit is to the RF as PR for their ongoing funding/status. I personally don’t care if people are lazy about their own PR work.
Meredith,
I also don’t care if people are lazy about their own PR work, as long as I don’t have to support them with my tax dollars.
Because if they want to be lazy and not do shit, they are welcome to return the SG, minus the amount going to BP renovations, of course.
I just don’t know why anyone cares if they do make work or no work with the tax dollars. Either way there is no benefit to the taxpayers. Arguably no work is better because it means you are less likely to have royals to support in the future.
Meredith,
So the solution is to just let them do fuck all and make their already-insanely pampered lives even easier??? Not to mention, your exact attitude is how the royal family has managed to not only survive this long, but to even grow their massive wealth every year on the taxpayers dime.
They have convinced multiple generations of Brits to just be totally disinterested and ignore them. Because if you’re ignoring them, you haven’t realized how utterly useless they are and how the only ones who benefit are themselves.
Because then you might want to tear the whole medieval concept down once and for all
Ok, wait a minute. That’s $1.3 billion for 170 helicopter trips. That comes out to over $7.6 million per trip? Those are pretty expensive visits to the doctor.
I assume they count the cost of the helicopter, maintenance, pilots, storage etc but even so that is ridiculous.
I imagine they throw in a lot more, like the cost of security and the staff that travels with him – in-flight meals? Who knows? It’s a crazy amount of money for short hops around the country.
The numbers seem contradictory. The last paragraph lists travel costs as £4.2m so how does that relate to £1b for the helicopters?
i wonder if that includes William and Kate or if their helicoptering comes out of the duchy expenses?
over one billion on helicopter trips alone…..I dont understand because it says the grant funds their travel costs but the grant last year was not one billion. So someone else is picking up that tab.
And then it says travel costs went up to 4.2 but that must not include the helicopter rides.
okay I went and looked at the actual article, and the headline says “1m” for helicopter rides but the text says 1b, so I guess the one billion is a typo. One million makes a lot more sense.
Re: the BP updates – weren’t those already factored into the increase in SG? Wasn’t QEII getting more in the SG to account for those renovations? So the 45 million upgrade can’t be explained solely by BP.
I suppose it’s possible that there’s a misprint – $1.3 million would be about $7,600 a ride, which makes more sense. But, if his helicopter rides (even if they include every possible royal) are really more than his whole budget, then that calls for investigation.
The helicopters come from the monarch because it was the Queen who set up William with his own helicopter a few years ago. The duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay for that. George will likely have separate travel expenses when they have him travel separately.
@Becks1 – thanks for checking. And yes, I remember that the BP renovations had been already factored in. The thing about the SG is that it can never be reduced – the percentage can be reduced, but not the actual cash amount. I suppose that’s what they mean by reducing the SG through “primary legislation” – that it will have to be a bill passed by Parliament.
“[T]he travel costs rose because Charles and Camilla travel with so many staffers and there’s so much stage-management for all of their events.” Yeah, they used to convince the plebs that it was because of Meghan’s clothing budget. But the truth is, Charles’s a fop, and a Dandy, a high-maintenance douche bag, maintaining two households with him and his side piece Queen living separately. And do you know he also wants to travel like the US President? So now they have to ship his Rolls for his over seas travels too. Eat cake plebs!
This 👆. Also, a fifteen year old helicopter is not like a fifteen year old car. Helicopters and airplanes can be kept in service for decades if properly maintained. And why are they still taking so many 🚁 trips? I thought Charles was an environmentalist. 🤔
Well said!
Wow, his and her matching helicopters. What every aspirational, tone deaf and greedy couple needs. Does that mean that W will get hand me down helicopters?
Refreshing to read a more factual article,esp considering that lately the BM had been spinning more than a washing machine cycle. I like the fact that the raise isn’t permanent like it was originally portrayed and that the govt will be reviewing it and possibly decreasing it once the renovations are done. Looks like the RF needs more senior working royals actually working if they want to keep that raise…
On my screen, there is a photo of Chucky Trips right next to Rhodes scholar, war hero, multilingual Pete the Power. The contrast could not be starker.
Do nothing, never had a job in his life juxtaposed with head-down, forge-on, getting it done, FAMILY MAN who hasn’t been told since birth that he’s special.
Take a lesson, Chuckles.
And Willy pulled in $30m from his Duchy. And KC also pulled in $$Ms from his. When is enough? Why can’t he buy his own helicopters to get to his dr appts?
I think the article says they don’t keep that money— they get a % of it as the SG.
The crown estate is land they stole from the nation. A few thousand years ago monarchs would at least risk their lives to defend the territory from external threats. They haven’t done that since Henry V.
So any cut of the profits is from land they shouldn’t claim any ownership from at this point.
What a grift.
It’s actually impressive that they’ve managed to scam British taxpayers for so long.
So many of them believe the royals bring in tourism, so they are worth it, despite France being RIGHT THERE!!
Sincerely, wake up. France gets higher tourism to their palaces, and no family of grifters to prop up as national mascots.
At this point they get tourism in spite of that family not because of it.
They need to buy 10 more helicopters, the British people deserve it for allowing this sh*t show go on for as long as it has
FYI the British tax year ends on the 5th April and most businesses run to the 31st March for their financial year.
If the royals run to the tax year I’m assuming the time since then has been spent analysing the data. My business has a 31st March financial year end and my accountant does my accounts sometime over the summer.
Traveling back and forth between the royals many homes is not necessary travel or travel for formal engagements!
They need to means test this particular welfare beneficiary. Just a little bit. And also apply sanctions for not meeting work obligations.
The Guardian reports that despite his cancer diagnosis KC has carried out 464 engagements “this year” in their article on SG increase. No such detail on FK but it does note 2700 overall RF engagements were carried out last year and 2300 this year.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/24/king-to-receive-extra-45m-of-public-money-as-crown-estate-income-soars?CMP=share_btn_url
Aren’t the tax payer entitled to know how FK is performing in his new role now he has the duchy income?
Now that I have officially reached the age my Doctor has described as “elderly” , I can in a different level understand the helicopter usage. Plane travel is exhausting. Even a charter or private plane, getting to and from airport etc. and planning around someone else’s schedule is time consuming and tiring. If I had a helicopter land in my back yard at my convenience, I’d be off on trips every day.
LOL! I’m not elderly (yet) but if I could travel by helicopter I would too.
But william does not have the age excuse.
If you did, you would be paying for it yourself. But jokes aside, wouldn’t it be a bit unseemly for you to flaunt that kind of wealth while sucking off the public teats?
Of course, none of that money is going to give their staff raises or to pay them decent money to work for the Royal Family.
So is the extra money being used to renovate Buckingham Palace, or is it being used for a new fleet of helicopters?
Awfully nice that the royals are getting such a huge upgrade.
The rest of the country is relying on food banks, but I’m sure they understand that the RF couldn’t be expected to fly around in an older helicopter now, can they?
Also, what is the point of a slimmed down monarchy, if the SG keeps going up every year?
If I’m remembering right, the Queen/King used to receive 25%, 15% for regular stuff and an extra and a temporary 10% for the renovation of Buckingham Palace. But with the huge amount of money from the new wind farm lease, Charles cut the overall percentage down from 25% to 12% and he still has a massive overall increase of 40 million pounds. Once the Buckingham Palace project is done, there should be a further reduction, but the net amount will remain massively large.
And with all this new money, plus the Duchy of Lancaster profits and their personal wealth, I don’t want to hear anymore more nonsense from Charles about cutting costs, streamlining the monarchy or what a burden it is to keep Andrew in the Royal Lodge. Financially, they’re doing great.
If you ask me the Windsors are the British mafia. This whole sovereign grant money scheme is more like money laundering. We give you this money, you clean it up and give it back to us with a profit to us . Imagine working less and. Yet getting more money. No way in the real world does that happen. Poor peasants can’t barely afford their modest lives but these free loaders keep living large off the backs of people who do work. And Charles and willy don’t need new helicopters. They have lots of cars and the train works . It’s not like they are actually working or making government decisions. It’s busy work that they do very little of and get paid way too much for.