In Queen Elizabeth II’s day, people would complain all the time about the cost of the monarchy and all of the low-ranking royals who all got to live in palace apartments on the taxpayers’ dime. But there was also a sense that the Windsors were a big, eccentric clan and there was something for everyone, even if you didn’t care much for the institution as a whole. Crash cut to September 2024, two years into King Charles’s reign, and it feels like the wheels have come off. Charles has cancer and he looks kind of awful. Camilla is simply evil. Prince William is too lazy to work and grow a beard at the same time. And god knows what’s going on with Kate. There are still random royals littered around, but it just feels like the monarchy is less relevant than ever and they’re not even providing much in the way of “service” to their people. Perfect moment for a huge salary bump, eh?
The cost of the grant that funds the monarchy is due to increase by more than 53% in the next year to £132m – a rise of £45m.
Official royal accounts released earlier this year revealed that huge profits of over £1bn from the crown estate mean the taxpayer-funded sovereign grant, which pays for the royal family’s official duties, will increase from £86.3m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26.
Republic, an anti-monarchy organisation that campaigns for a British republic, has analysed the “true cost” of the royal family to the public and claimed that it now exceeds £500m a year.
Officials said the extra cash will be funnelled into the decade-long, £369m update to Buckingham Palace. Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, said: “If [the chancellor] Rachel Reeves thinks tough decisions are needed in these difficult times, she needs to start with the royals. We’re being told the budget will be painful. Well, if that’s true, the cuts must start at the top. How can we talk about cutting the winter fuel allowance while wasting half a billion pounds on the royals?”
Republic claims the largest portion of the money, £150m, was spent on royal security and a further £96m in “lost revenue”, the report claims, as royal residences “occupied by the royal family cannot be used to their full potential by the state”.
I’m not going to pretend to understand what money is being spent on security, palace upkeep, staffing and more, but I agree with Republic that a lot of costs are being hidden because they’re not technically being taken out of the SG. The Sovereign Grant supposedly pays for Charles, Camilla and everyone other than the Prince and Princess of Wales. QEII made the SG “stretch” to support various cousins and distant relations, in addition to her other children’s lives, spouses, offices and staffs. But in KC3’s reign, he’s pinching pennies and pushing family members out of their homes and apartments. You know he’s cutting off a lot of funds from a lot of his family members. So the family has “retracted,” especially in visibility. Why isn’t the SG also retracting? I know why on a technical level – it’s because so much money is coming in from “royal land.” Not just rentals and farms, but wind farms have been massively profitable for the Crown. Instead of the government simply taking the windfall, they’re passing it on to Charles, to do with as he sees fit. It’s bizarre.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Buckingham Palace.
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla are joined by Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their Coronation in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774227092, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Marc Aspland The Times/Sunday Times / Avalon
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- King Charles III leaves Westminster Abbey after his Coronation, London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774228682, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dan Charity / Avalon
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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: 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 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
For what exactly is this raise.
Wind farms at sea. The Crown Estate owns the territorial seabed out to 12 nautical miles and around half of the foreshore around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. So the income to the crown estate has increased because of the wind farms and as the sovereign’s grant is a percentage of that income, it goes up as well.
I don’t mind it bizarre, I find it amoral, indefensible, contrary to basic human rights. And mostly, a gigantic embarassment to a country that likes to pretend that it is modern and relevant.
Is “lost revenue” due to un-rented properties? I’m thinking Frogmore sitting empty and Charles keeping his grubby hands on ~9 Palaces.
Those wind farms should reduce energy costs, right? I’d follow that line of income too.
Someone needs to do a deeper dive into the money trail. It doesn’t make sense if the SG is only now 132m and the security alone is 150 m. So does security get paid by the government? In that case why is revenue lost to the public only 96 m? Shouldn’t that 132 m be added on, at least partially? And what about PW’s duchy? Give all of it back to the public who are supposedly allowing the royals to hold all this.
I think the security is on a completely different budget than the Sovereign Grant.
Yes, their security is a separate cost and isn’t paid out of the SG. I recall there were stories that the total annual security cost was well into the nine figures, but then it was totally squashed with some statement about how the exact cost would not be public information, even though the public pays for it. I think this came up around the time of when the sex offender Andrew was complaining about his daughters losing their paid for security due to aging out.
It’s absolutely bonkers that Charles was still hustling for cash, as recently as a few years ago, with the promise of SO MUCH WEALTH, so close. He’s simply swimming in money—what does he do with it, all?
#AbolishTheMonarchy is trending, on twitter.
It looks as if Charles is grabbibg and holding onto as much public loot as possible before the taxpayers cut off the spigot. The point of a slimmed down monarchy is to respond to public complaints about cost. Instead costs go up and number of royals go down. Nutz!
The BRF has never been “value for money”, but this is blatant, extortionist behaviour on the part of Charles and the “govt in his name”. That money belongs to the people, they generated that wealth, and they should be given it to spend.
The current government is looking for spending they can cut to fix the economic situation. It is crazy they never think of cutting off some of BRF’s money. They are letting one family in UK live in unbelievable luxury, while a lot of british people are barely making the day and NHS is struggling.
The new Labour govt must absolutely expose this and make a real cut to these automatic raises through legislation. It is so ridiculous that only the regular citizens and workers are having to cut back.
Absolutely.
Another, additional, option is an across-the-board massive rent reduction for all Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall tenants. That would make a real difference to those people’s living standards – and wouldn’t even be noticed by Charles or W, so great are their financial surpluses.
Republic put a link up to complain to your MP . I did this so it might be brought up at the budget debate (doubt it). These grifters are getting money thrown at them. While the poor old people are getting their heating allowance taken away from them. So people with millions are getting more millions. People who have worked all their lives and contributed to the system are losing money . There is unfairness here. Not funny at all.
Maybe that Balmoral summit was in part about securing a safe place for all these pounds?
My thought as well after reading about the SG raise . Where to stash all our money, as William is due to inherit sooner rather than later.
Obscene.
I am very cross about this and want RF expenses scrutinised and the new Labour government getting tough with them. Austerity for the majority whilst King Chuck and co sit on a mountain of wealth and land is not right. RF are in a perilous position because FK does not want to fulfill a FT role and do even the minimum expected of him. How come they do so little and cost so much and what Will deigns to do, he does badly and with poor grace? Why the lack of outrage in the press? Sir Keir was rightly hauled over the coals for using donations to cover personal shopper and new wardrobe for wife. Why should we be paying for the wardrobe of the non working wife of Will ? Where is the accounatbility for public money expenditure?
If they make so much money from the royal lands they should be left to cover all their costs. And I have never believed that it only annually cost the tax payer a pound is it?
These sums are defying any logic.
So the SG is going to be £ 132 million. For 4 adults, that would be £ 33 million each, as it’s only for the senior royals.
But at the same time there are the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall that provide Chuck and Harry’s brother with “private” annual income, with Cornwall paying ~ £ 23 million IIRC.
The security costs are for any royal building that has to be kept under surveillance, even if it sits empty for much of the time — like Balmoral, or Sandringham, or Tamarisk on Scilly. Or places like Mey, or Llwynywermod, or Holyroodhouse that are only used for ceremonies — but have to be guarded regardless *and* require a minimum of staff for housekeeping.
And yes, Gatcombe and Bagshot Park are also on that list.
I don’t get why the British are so passive about these royals. They’re billionaires — and they receive hundreds of millions that they can spend for… whatever, and the king owns not only quite a lot of “public” land, but nearly all of the British coast *and* the 12 nautical miles out around the British coast, and everyone using it has to pay rent. Windfarms, oil pipelines, fisheries…
Abolish the monarchy.
So does this bring the cost up to 560 million pounds a year for this waste of space family? Absolutely disgusting this is a family of greedy thieves.
Just reading the headline makes me very angry.
QEIi was the wealthiest female on the planet.
Where exactly is all their private money hidden?
Garbage grifters in feather hats and ermine robes.
From what I remember, by law SG as a total amount can never go down, but what can be adjusted down is the percentage amount that the SG gets from revenues.
And it’s a relatively recent change (the coalition government maybe?), no reason that it can’t be changed again so that it can go down.
I think it goes back to 2011 when the Sovereign Grant Act eliminated the Civil List. Then in 2016, they increased the percentage payout to 25% for 10 years to allow for the renovation of BP. The plan is to review everything for the budget 2026-27 and pass legislation to lower the absolute amount of the SG.
https://www.republic.org.uk/halfbillionroyals_mymp
Here is the Republic link for UK Cbers to find out their local MP and send him an email asking that RF finaces be scrutinised. It felt very satisfying to send off my own version. I want a democratically elected Head of State but I love the suggestion of putting King on an annual salary linked to number of engagements carried out!!
Whoops: I used just the male pronoun by mistake in above post I should have written her/ them/ him for MPs so please send them an email.
The RF are grifters, useless layabouts, and welfare queens.
No so-called royal reporter is covering this story. Apparently the British people care more about lies told about Meghan than they do about their loafing monarchy getting a pay raise while old ladies go to bed hungry.
#AbolishTheMonarchy is trending 😎😎
I just will never understand why the British people have put up with this family of useless grifters for so long.
There isn’t enough backlash. Unless not just a small group but everyone 30 and under speaks up this will continue
These people have sooo much money. And their cutting off family members left and right as part of the slimmed down monarchy. I get that there is security and upkeep but even after that it’s sooo much money. What in the hell are they doing with it all? And yet their foundations take donations? Like what? Im so baffled.
But wait, there’s George and news of his flying lessons….and he’s only 11 years old. It would seem some people are looking ahead to George and he’s being set up as the saviour of the British monarchy?!?!
Don’t hold your breath on that one.
Yay! BRFCo is finally getting enough money to improve travel and tourism in the UK!🇬🇧💂👑