British Monarchy-Royal Finances 2014-Present

[Orchid]

Royal Finances Campaign | Republic

The monarchy is expensive, very expensive. Of course it wouldn't matter if it were free; the cost to our democracy would still be too high.
But when the palace tells you the royals are "value-for-money", don't believe it - we could get much better for far less.

Our royal finances campaign raises awareness of the true cost of the monarchy, monitoring royal spending and providing accurate figures to the media.

Republic's Royal Finances Reform Charter proposes the following simple reforms, to improve accountability, transparency and fairness in royal finances and to appropriately assign public funds to the Treasury.

- Parliament to set an annual fixed budget for the monarchy - including an annual salary for the Queen - to be managed and reported on by a government department, not Buckingham Palace.

- All security costs to be made transparent and accountable. All costs of royal visits around the country to be incorporated into the monarchy's budget, not met by local authorities.

- The institution of the monarchy, and all members of the royal household, to be required to abide by the same tax laws and rules as all other public bodies and private individuals.

- The Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall to be fully investigated by parliament with a view to transferring them into public ownership, with all revenue going to the Treasury.

- The monarchy's finances to be scrutinised by the National Audit Office like any other public body.

- The Crown Estate to be renamed 'the National Estate' and its status clarified through amendment of the Crown Estate Act.

- These demands include the scrapping of the Sovereign Support Grant, a new funding arrangement introduced by the coalition government.  The new grant is set in line with the revenue of the Crown Estate - it can go up when that revenue goes up, but it can never go down, even when Crown Estate income drops.

[PrincessOfPeace]

The True Cost of the Royal Family Explained

[PrincessOfPeace]

The True Cost of the Royal Family Explained

A very explanation of royal finances

[Orchid]

When was that video made? It would be interesting to know which sources the man who creates the Youtube CGP Grey channel uses to compile his video content. 

I'll quote this from the Republic organisation for the time being.  I'll add broader research and comments later as some aspects need to be better qualified and will benefit from further explication as reported from different sources.  But for now, I'd be interested to hear responses to the counter argument presented here.  It essentially refutes the £40 million annual cost, the crown estate ownership (and by extension the rebate to the taxpayer), and also extends the latent costs associated with the met police and local authorities which I don't believe are ever incorporated into the "monarchy cost" figures. If these figures are included I'd be very interested to see a source which accounts for them.

How is the monarchy funded?

The monarchy has never been funded like other public bodies, which are usually set an annual budget based on what they actually need to spend.

Until 2013, the costs of the monarchy – that's the Queen in her role as head of state and the other working royals – were funded by a civil list payment and a number of separate grants covering travel, property maintenance, communications and other expenses.

All these costs have now been rolled into one single annual payment called the "sovereign support grant". This has been set at 15% of surplus revenue from the crown estate - a publicly-owned property portfolio - resulting in a payment of £36.1m for 2013/2014.

However, the sovereign support grant is just one part of the total cost of the monarchy. The royal family's security bill is picked up by the metropolitan police, for example, while the costs of royal visits are borne by local councils.

Meanwhile, income from the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall – despite belonging to the nation - goes directly to the Queen and Prince Charles respectively, depriving the treasury of tens of millions of pounds every year.

When all this hidden expenditure is included, the real cost of the monarchy to British taxpayers is likely to be over £200m annually.

- See more at: http://republic.org.uk/what-we-want/royal-finances#sthash.kVeyt3Bk.dpuf

Truth goes hand in hand with transparency...  :hmm:

A keen point, Limabeany. 

It's very difficult for the cost of the Firm to be accurately reported/understood when a lack of transparency prohibits full accountability.  What do those who support the monarchy / accept the ball-park costs, think of this point?

[Graceanne]

I think the monarchy definitely needs to be restructured so the separation between private and public money is very clear. Right now, I'm not sure there is any real accountability and consequences. We keep hearing accusations of miss management of funds and creative book keeping when it comes to taxes but does anyone really know who pays for what? For instance, William and Kate receive security and a fee from the government for their public engagements. Prince Charles is said to pay the rest. The tricky part is that the expenses he pays count as business expenses and can be written off the taxes he owes. So technically, government money is used to pay for William and Kate to do public work even though on paper private money is used.

The more I read up on this issue the more confused I get.

[PrincessOfPeace]

Here is a list of FAQ on the funding of the BRF through the Sovereign Grant.

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Sovereign Grant Act: frequently asked questions relating to the Act and on general issues - HM Treasury

There is much transparency and the parliament over-site.

[cate1949]

I do agree people seem to almost stubbornly insist they are paying for things they are clearly not paying for.  Given how much info is out there about financing the monarch that is surprising to me - the basic DM comment usually includes tirades about how "I am paying for that" - articles on Kate's hats prompt comments about how the taxpayer is funding her hats.

Obviously - things that once were funded aren't anymore - good to see all the relatives at KP paying market rents as an example.  There clearly is a lot more transparency - short of the Queen handing in receipts for everything I am not sure how much more oversight would make sense.

Transparency and a clear sense that the money is being spent wisely is the best approach.

[PrincessOfPeace]

The annual Sovereign Grant report – the report on the Monarchy's public finances in the last year – was published today, showing in Monarchy's expenditure was £35.7 million for the year 2013-2014.

The Sovereign Grant, which covers everything from the cost of staff to the cost of maintaining the royal residences, was introduced by Parliament in 2011 to replace the Civil List and other grants to The Queen in order to simplify royal expenses and make them easier to track. Since then, the Monarchy's annual finances have been audited by Parliament.

Although the money The Queen receives comes from the Treasury, the amount is determined by the profits of the Crown Estates – property portfolios that belong to the Sovereign in right of crown – with 15% of the value of the Crown Estate's profits being given to Her Majesty as funding.

More: Monarchy cost each person 56p last year | Royal Central

[good221]

The annual Sovereign Grant report – the report on the Monarchy's public finances in the last year – was published today, showing in Monarchy's expenditure was £35.7 million for the year 2013-2014.

The Sovereign Grant, which covers everything from the cost of staff to the cost of maintaining the royal residences, was introduced by Parliament in 2011 to replace the Civil List and other grants to The Queen in order to simplify royal expenses and make them easier to track. Since then, the Monarchy's annual finances have been audited by Parliament.

Although the money The Queen receives comes from the Treasury, the amount is determined by the profits of the Crown Estates – property portfolios that belong to the Sovereign in right of crown – with 15% of the value of the Crown Estate's profits being given to Her Majesty as funding.

More: Monarchy cost each person 56p last year | Royal Central

How is it under budget when we tax payer pay the bill, the Queen only cover their chairs, tables, carpet. Everything else  was paid for by US fool, I read a lot of  their financial budgets on different London paper this Moring going to work. No wonder people are still  piss off!
I get it you are Kate and William biggest fan please STOP Sugar clothing one side, this Mess have way too many issues, if Kate and William can stop add more B.S they don't need this 4millions will be 10millions by next year.  Like two kitchen, 2 walk in closet why two when she always recycles. Game room for George the kids is barely One why game room and how much will it cost to fill the kid play ground.As I said before too many unnecessary things.
IF you read closely to other's London news time paper you will be able to see and understand more about this mess that the royal families is trying to cover.
Lastly will it kill these two lazy brats to do some more work instead of polo match and planning their next two weeks vacations. >( >(

[PrincessOfPeace]

I'm not sure why every thread here at RIF automatically becomes about William and Catherine but just to clarify, the Sovereign Grant is given to the Queen and no one else.

The Queen along with her senior advisors decide on the what the priorities are for the year and the money is applied. The amount of the Sovereign Grant is calculated at 15 percent of the profits of the Crown Estate. It has nothing at all to do with W&K or any other members of her family

If W&K didn't exist the Queen receives the exact same amount of money.

[Limabeany]

For her, through her aides, to cry out that 40M in urgent repairs are needed and then to spend 4.5M of what she is given on an apartment for a grandson that isn't even a working royal but an occasionally working royal, an apartment which, to make matters worse, he will not be living in because he has better things to do, seems a wildly fanciful and very public display of a lack of common sense or lack of control over William...

[georgiana996]

The 4 mil wasn't spent on their apartment alone it was spent for that wing of the palace to be refurbished , that whole area was closed for more than a year to carry out the repairs .

[PrincessOfPeace]

PDF available to view or download

The Sovereign Grant Annual Report for 2013-14 states that net expenditure was £35.7m, an increase of 2.4m (7.2%) on the previous year.

The increase in Sovereign Grant funding received and in revenue generated was spent on additional property maintenance which rose by £4.2m.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said

"We continue to focus on value for money and performance monitoring which has enabled us to reduce Sovereign Grant expenditure, excluding property maintenance, in real terms and has allowed us to increase the funds allocated to bringing the property estate up to target condition by 47%."

More: http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2014/RoyalFinances201314.aspx

[Limabeany]

The 4 mil wasn't spent on their apartment alone it was spent for that wing of the palace to be refurbished , that whole area was closed for more than a year to carry out the repairs .

The 4.5M was spent on their Apt. alone, the four story wing is their Apt.  :hug:

[PrincessOfPeace]

That's William and Catherine taken care for ow, the next big expenditure will be for Harry. Either an apartment at KP or maybe BP.

[georgiana996]

The 4 mil wasn't spent on their apartment alone it was spent for that wing of the palace to be refurbished , that whole area was closed for more than a year to carry out the repairs .

The 4.5M was spent on their Apt. alone, the four story wing is their Apt.  :hug:

I had posted an article that went over the costs and what they were for  , full facts its in the KP thread .

[SophieChloe]

The royal household is openly abusing public money | Left Foot Forward

The total annual cost of the monarchy is estimated by Republic to be around £300m – nine times higher than the official figure

Royal Family ncrjOne of the more disreputable traditions associated with the monarchy is the annual farce of the royal finance report. This is when the royal household gets to report on its own spending of taxpayers' money on its own terms – tightly managing the release of information and ensuring it's carefully couched in so much spin real abuse of public money gets glossed over..

[SophieChloe]

http://t.co/4qYbaX6KqU

How much is the Queen costing us? Don't be fooled by the headline figures - Fleet Street Fox - Mirror Online

Republic @RepublicStaff  ·  Jun 26

If an MP spent £4k public money on their own home they'd be in serious trouble. Queen spends £4m on home of grandson and we get excuses

I couldn't agree more!

[PrincessOfPeace]

As with all of republics numbers, they pull them out of thin air. The other thing is the royal household doesn't report the spending of the Sovereign Grant on its own terms.

The information is there for those who are interested but Graham Smith isn't interested

[SophieChloe]

I think Mr Smith has done his homework.... :nod:

I'd love a breakdown of just how exactly £4.5M was spent on William's flat.  Do you have one? 

[PrincessOfPeace]

If he did his homework he would show his work... but he can't because his numbers are pure flight of fantasy. Smith doesn't provide sources because he doesn't have any.

[SophieChloe]

I suggest they get a new Privy of the Purse - or whatever he is called.  All these well paid people and W&K are still running amok!

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

Prince Charles's flights for his and Camilla's visit to India & Sri Lanka for CHOGM cost £350,413.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

Royal travel cost the taxpayer £4.2million, official accounts have revealed.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

The Duke of Gloucester visited South Korea last July and charged taxpayers £25,575 for his flights.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

Prince Charles's aide Alastair Martin was paid £192,318 royal accounts showed.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

Prince Charles' aide Sir Robert Ross, who retired last June, earned £267,414 including pension contributions up by 6% royal accounts show.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

The Queen's best-paid staff Private Secretary Sir Christopher Geidt & Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Alan Reid got at least £10,000 rises.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

The Queen and Prince Charles employ 4 people earning more than the UK PM's £142,000-a-year salary, royal accounts show.

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor  ·  8h

Top royal aides earned more than UK Prime Minister last year – but still got pay rises, according to the Royal Family's accounts.

[PrincessOfPeace]

The royal family's accounts are open to public scrutiny. Graham Smith on the other hand just pulls numbers out of thin air to feed his own ideology.

[Limabeany]

That's William and Catherine taken care for ow, the next big expenditure will be for Harry. Either an apartment at KP or maybe BP.

Wishful thinking and Harry has nothing to do with the matter at hand as it is quite doubtful he will receive 6M pounds to decorate and repair his future home, 4.5M from HM and 1.5M from Charles) William and Catherine were in no need to have the Queen spend 4.5M on a house they were not going to live in for the foreseeable future and for a future role they would not be assuming in the foreseeable future at this time on a whim of William, other truly urgent repairs could have been performed if they were not even planning to live there, that space was used as storage for an office and could have remained so until they finally decided they could lower themselves to the status of working royals...

[SophieChloe]

They are wasting money. Why do they need all these Advisors?  I thought the Monarchy was well and truly embedded into the hearts of the Nation?

Imagine what that money could do for the people of this country instead of one family.  And they have the cheek to do Charity....(well some of them).