 "Britain's King Charles III officially hands over the role of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps to Prince William, Prince of Wales, in front of a helicopter at the Army Aviation Centre in Middle Wallop, Britain May 13, 2024. Reuters")
The incomes of Prince William and King Charles III of Britain are fair for, well, a king and his apparent heir.
The 42-year-old Prince of Wales, who is also the Duke of Cornwall, receives an annual salary from a private estate, the Duchy of Cornwall.
The United Kingdom’s royal family is set to become even wealthier thanks to a massive rise in profit from the Crown Estate.
Let’s take a look.
Prince William’s jaw-dropping salary
In its Integrated Annual Report, released on Thursday, the Duchy of Cornwall reported a distributable surplus of £23.6 million (Rs 254 crore) for the fiscal year 2023–2024, Prince William’s first full year as the Duke of Cornwall.
This amount covers Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their three kids’ official, charitable, and personal expenses.
Notably, the Prince of Wales is a working member of the royal family and does not earn a regular salary.
Rather, the majority of his yearly costs are met by the Duchy of Cornwall, a property that King Edward III set up in 1337 to support the heir apparent.
This vast estate, which covers 130,000 acres in 23 counties in England and Wales and is valued at over Rs 7,500 crore. It consists of land, farms, houses, and other assets that support the heir and their family. It includes various resources, including forests, rivers, quarries, shores, residential and commercial sites, and livestock farms.
It is believed that Prince William pays income tax on the total amount of money he receives from the Duchy of Cornwall, less any unspecified domestic expenditures.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsPrince William’s actual net worth is unclear, however, CelebrityNetWorth estimates it to be $100 million.
However, after he assumed control of the Duchy of Cornwall, his wealth reportedly increased to more than $1 billion, according to the Daily Express and other reports.
Also read: After spending millions on chopper travel, why is King Charles replacing them?
King Charles’s huge profit
Official accounts show that King Charles will receive a massive pay raise of £45 million, representing a boost in his official annual income of more than 50 per cent.
This is because of an uptick in public financing in the coming years, thanks to increased profits from offshore wind farms. This will increase its yearly financing in the tax year 2025–2026 from around £86 million to £132 million.
“Although King Charles won’t directly pocket this money, it will go into a budget over which he has significant input, alongside key management and advisers,” Alex King, a chartered accountant and founder of UK-based finance and economics platform Generation Money , told Fortune.
The government grant of the monarchy is determined by a fixed percentage of the earnings from The Crown Estate, an empire of publicly held land that includes a significant portion of the seabed off the coast of the UK.
This indicates that after a lifetime of supporting environmental causes, it has been able to make a significant profit from developing offshore wind farms, giving the king a financial boost from renewable energy.
Buckingham Palace has been refurbished for ten years, costing £369 million. Palace authorities have stated that this large increase will help to finish the project on time and under budget.
A Palace official stated that the financial hike will be subject to a legislative review in 2026–2027 to guarantee that the support given to the Royal family stays at a “more appropriate” level.
Well, it might come as a surprise, but King Charles isn’t the richest man in the UK.
He ranks number 258 on the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List, which lists about 1,000 wealthiest people or families in Britain.
According to the list, former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had overtaken the King in terms of personal wealth. Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, have seen their wealth increase by more than £120 million ($152 million) over the past year, bringing their total fortune to £651 million ($827 million).
The royal trips
Trips with private aircraft or helicopters, however, can occasionally come at an excessive expense. The royal family’s helicopter travel expenses topped £1 million (Rs 10.78 crore) in the previous year.
Official records show that between April 2023 and the end of March 2024, the royal family made 170 helicopter trips, spending a total of £1,096,300.
Last year, the overall cost of travel increased from £3.9 million (Rs 42.04 crore) to £4.2 million (Rs 45.28 crore).
Aides have justified the heavy helicopter use, which has come under fire for its effects on the environment, arguing that it allows royals more flexibility and convenient access to far-flung locations, not to mention more engagements per day.
Certainly, the most expensive mode of transportation was still the royal train.
Charles spent £53,013 on a two-day visit to North Yorkshire, where he attended events such as the centenary of the Flying Scotsman, an express train service that runs between Edinburgh and London.
The Royal family is also replacing two helicopters that they have been using for the past fifteen years. King Charles and the royal family can fulfil their obligations thanks largely to the two new AgustaWestland AW139s.
The goal will be to maximise usage and “sweat the assets” due to the high cost of replacement.
With inputs from agencies