Royal Burden: How much does the British taxpayer pay for the upkeep of the monarchy?

£86.3 million — Rs 1,015 crore.

That’s how much the British Royal family cost the taxpayer in 2024, according to the newly released accounts, which also revealed that the annual income of the royal household is set to rise to £132.1 million (Rs 1,555 crore) a year for the next two years.

What do the accounts reveal? How much is King Charles’ income? How much does the British taxpayer pay? Let’s take a closer look at the princely amounts.

The Sovereign Grant, explained

The money paid by the British taxpayer towards the monarchy is known as the Sovereign Grant and this pays for the upkeep of royal palaces and the royals’ official duties. However, it does exclude security, which is a high cost given the royals’ numerous public engagements and events.

Earlier, the British Royal Family was funded through a fixed annual payment known as the Civil List. This was replaced by the Sovereign Grant in 2012.

More from Explainers

Macron-Starmer meeting: France, UK to announce plans to block migrant boats in English Channel Will UK dismantle and airlift the F-35B jet that has been stranded in Kerala for 3 weeks?

But how is it decided how much the British taxpayer would shell out for the Sovereign Grant? The profits of the Crown Estate — a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole — go to the Treasury. And the level of profit is then used as a benchmark to calculate the funding given to the royals.

What is interesting to note is that as per the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, if the Crown Estate’s profits fall, the monarch still receives the same amount as the previous year, with the government making up the difference.

Editor’s Picks

1

Sprawling castles, vintage cars, and more… Just how rich is King Charles? 2

Living Life King-Size: How much King Charles' first year on throne cost British taxpayers

And in 2023 it was decided that the Sovereign Grant will be worth 12 per cent of the Crown Estate’s profits from next year.

Besides the Sovereign Crown and the Crown Estate, King Charles also receives money from the Duchy of Lancaster, which is passed down from monarch to monarch. It covers more than 18,000 hectares of land in Lancashire and Yorkshire as well as property in London. These properties are estimated to be worth £654 million, generating £20 million a year in profits.

Big royal expenses borne by Sovereign Grant

The newly-released accounts show that royal travel was one of the most significant expenses from the Sovereign Grant — a whopping £4.7 million (Rs 55.36 crore) was spent on travel a rise of £500,000 (Rs 5.88 crore) from £4.2 million (Rs 49.47 crore) the previous year.

This amount was largely due to the King and Queen’s charter flight to Samoa and a scheduled flight back to London, which totalled £400,500 (Rs 4.7 crore). The trip was part of a nine-day tour to Australia and the Pacific island, in which the King also attended his first Commonwealth heads of government meeting.

Other travel costs included a charter flight to and from Belfast and helicopters around Northern Ireland in March, which cost £80,100 (Rs 94 lakh).

Another big expense draining the Sovereign Grant is the upkeep and maintenance of royal palaces, including Buckingham Palace. The accounts show that £41.2 million (Rs 485 crore) was spent on property maintenance, compared with £47 million (Rs 553 crore) the previous year.

It’s been reported that while renovations continue at Buckingham Palace state visits, such as that of French President Emmanuel Macron in July and US President Donald Trump will move to Windsor Castle.

There’s also the added cost of wages for those working for the royals. The accounts show that £29.9 million (Rs 352 crore) was spent on payroll, up £2 million from £27.9 million. In fact, accounts reveal that wages for staff has gone up considerably since 2022.

The Sovereign Grant has also been used to initiate certain green initiatives at Buckingham Palace. One of these programmes is the conversion of the first of two official Bentleys to run on bio-fuel.

In one-cost cutting move, Buckingham Palace has announced that the royal train would be taken out of service by 2027, after nearly £78,000 was spent on two trips in the past year. The royal train – which had been used extensively for events during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year-reign – requires regular, specialised maintenance work. Decommissioning the train is estimated to save the royal household about £1 million a year.

Calls to abolish Sovereign Grant grow louder

The taxpayers’ funding of the British royal family has, however, long fuelled criticism, with anti-monarchists calling for the abolition of the Sovereign Grant. CEO of anti-monarchy group Republic, Graham Smith, said the funding was “mad”.

“The grant system is mad. Funding goes up not because of any need for extra money, but because the grant is linked to government profits from land managed by the Crown Estate. The palace has recycled the excuse of needing the money for [the] refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, an excuse used to double the grant 10 years ago.

“It is obscene to see the billionaire royals rake in another £45 million in funding when disabled people are suffering cuts to their support, when schools and hospitals are struggling, and when household bills continue to rise.”

Others further argue that official figures vastly underestimate the true burden on the taxpayer. Norman Baker, a former Liberal Democrat member of parliament and the author of And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don’t Want You To Know, was quoted as telling Al Jazeera that British monarchy is bad value both on its own terms and in comparison to other constitutional monarchies.

“It costs, even according to the palace’s own figures, twice as much as any other monarchy in Europe,” Baker told Al Jazeera. “And actually that is a grotesque underestimate because there are a number of benefits to the royal family which aren’t available to other monarchies in Europe, for example, the exemption from death duties.”

With inputs from agencies