How much the British Royal family are costing taxpayers
The British Royal Household has released its annual financial statement, The Sovereign Grant Report, which shows how much citizens paying for the Royal family. The annual accounts — from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018 — reveals the cost to maintain Queen Elizabeth and her family is up four pence per taxpayer.
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According to the figures released, each British taxpayer paid 69 pence for the royal family, up 4 pence from the figures last year. Nevertheless, the illustrious royals’ Crown Estate, their independent commercial property arm, returned £329.4 million to the public Treasury. This was a £12.7 million increase from the previous figure.
Queen Elizabeth was given a pay rise of 13 percent. The total Sovereign Grant, which pays for the Queen’s household expenses, palaces upkeep and official travels, had also increased by 16 percent. This is mainly due to an increase in expenditure on property maintenance, including the £30.4 million annual budget for the renovation of the Buckingham Palace. The total Sovereign Grant for 2017-18 is £76.1 million.
Her Majesty undertook 154 official engagements for 2017-2018. The rest of the Royal Family also took their fair share, carrying out some 300 engagements as a whole. And with travels and engagements come expenditures.
“For the first time since the reign of Queen Victoria, there are three generations of the royal family at work together in support of The Queen,” Sir Michael Stevens, keeper of the Privy Purse, said. “Each generation brings its own style and personality. What everyone shares is a desire for the monarchy to reflect and serve all parts of our country and the wider Commonwealth.”
The Queen’s heir and eldest son Prince Charles was the biggest spender among full-time royals mainly because of his extensive travels. He spent £362,149 on his visit to India, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in October and November. They boarded the RAF Voyager during this trip. He also used the Royal Train when he visited Manchester and others in January. His trip cost £20,146.
Charles spent £4,962,000 for this year, a 40 percent hike from his spending of £3,529,000 the previous year. The amount was billed as “other expenditure,” with a spokesman refusing to elaborate on the cost to Vanity Fair, which speculated that it could have something to do with his younger son Prince Harry’s engagement to Meghan Markle. The newlyweds, who married in May, attended a number of official engagements around the country, and these were funded by Charles.
The palace’s financial reports also included the royals’ progress on going green. They were able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent.
