THE monarchy is to receive a boost of more than £45 million, with a 53% jump in its official annual income to more than £130m.
Soaring profits from the Crown Estate to £1.1 billion mean the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family, will increase from £86.3m in 2024/2025 to £132m in 2025/2026.
Officials said the increase will be used to help fund the final stages of the 10-year £369m renovation of Buckingham Palace, keeping it on time and budget.
The boost will be reviewed through legislation in 2026/27 to keep funding of the royal family at a “more appropriate” level, a Palace spokesperson said.
A National Audit Office report on Tuesday revealed the Palace renovation has been well managed but structural damage and the discovery of asbestos, which led to cost increases, “could have been foreseen”.
Buckingham Palace’s annual accounts – covering the first full financial year of the King’s reign – were published on Wednesday after being delayed for a month because of the General Election.
The Sovereign Grant report revealed the royal household will take delivery of two new helicopters in 2024/25 to replace the existing 15-year-old ones.
The AgustaWestland AW139s are considered a “key component” in enabling the King and royal family to carry out their engagements, allowing access to remote areas of the UK, and they will replace the current Sikorsky helicopters.
The King’s state Bentleys are being converted to run on bio-fuel within the next year, with a view to switching to a fleet of official electric cars in the future, while solar panels have been introduced to Windsor Castle for the first time.
Gas lanterns at Buckingham Palace, which were switched off during the recent energy crisis as a cost-saving measure, are being repurposed with specially-designed electrical fittings to improve their energy efficiency while also preserving their historic look.
The Sovereign Grant is funded by the taxpayer in exchange for the King’s surrender of the revenue from the Crown Estate.
The rundown of royal finances – from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024 – covers the months following the King and the Princess of Wales’s double cancer diagnosis, with both away from public facing duties from January onwards.
The accounts also span the period of the coronation and festivities celebrating the crowning of the King and Queen in May last year.
There were more than 2300 official engagements by members of the royal family in the UK and overseas, compared with more than 2700 last year.
The King undertook 464 official engagements despite his cancer diagnosis, with the Queen carrying out 201, of which 103 were joint engagements.
The number of guests at official residences however rose by 10% to more than 105,000 with over 400 events.
Official travel costs for the monarchy rose by £0.3m from £3.9m to £4.2m.
The most expensive travel was the King and Queen’s visit to Kenya by charter flight in October, along with the related separate staff planning visit by scheduled flights, which came to a total of £166,557.
A three-day state visit to France, with trips to Paris and Bordeaux, by Charles and Camilla by charter flight in September cost £117,942.
Housekeeping and hospitality came in at £2.6m up from £2.4m last year.
But overall expenditure fell by 17% or £18.4m from £107.5m in 2022/23 to £89.1m, with the Palace putting the change mostly due to an anticipated decrease in expenditure on the Palace renovation program in 2023-24.
The report also showed £600,000 from the Sovereign Grant was spent on the coronation and events surrounding it last year, with the total cost to the Sovereign Grant overall coming to £800,000.
The figure covered internal costs such as staffing, Palace receptions, plus any furnishings or costumes which be reused later on, including the readjusting of the Imperial State Crown and the King and Queen’s coronation robes.
Palace officials also confirmed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s former home Frogmore Cottage remains empty and there are no new tenants.
The funding of the monarchy was switched last year from 25% to 12% of the Crown Estate’s net profits because of the rising income expected from the estate’s new offshore wind deals.
The King asked for the wind farm profits to be used for the wider public good.
If the 25% formula had continued the monarchy would have received £275m instead in 2025/26.
Despite the percentage reduction, Crown Estate financial figures published on Wednesday showed the profits in 2023-24 were £1.1bn , meaning the Sovereign Grant – based on funds two years in arrears – will be £132m in 2025-26 – £45.7m more than in 2024/25.
