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Topics: Money, Royal Family, UK News
Britt Jones
Topics: Money, Royal Family, UK News
The topic of the Royal Family and how much money they earn has been of interest for years as common folk are curious to know how much of their money is funding the Sovereign.
From thousands of visits per year to international countries, local hospitals and acts of public services, the royals have been working to keep the UK in good relations with its neighbours for decades.
But it isn’t paid from their own pockets. Let’s break it down...
The Royal Family have three separate accounts to draw money from, and that’s the Sovereign Grant, The Sovereign Grant Reserve and The Privy Purse (known as the King’s personal fund).
While the family also have an art collection as an investment, their main source of income comes from the British taxpayer.
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This year, the Royals were given £86.3 million to fund their activities this year as part of the Grant.
The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 was introduced by the government to provide annually a fund pot which would pay for the royal’s official duties.
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Then, if there were any surplus left over from the previous years, it would be placed inside of the Sovereign Grant Reserve fund, which the family can then draw from it if their expenditure is more than their earnings.
You might not think the family have much to spend from such a large amount of money, but you’d be wrong.
The royals are constantly hard at work, and they employ a wealth of people to help them day-to-day.
As the Royal Family's official website shows, in the 2023/2024 financial year, they spent a whopping £89.1m on things like:
The family then took £2.8m from the Sovereign Reserve.
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The way the amount per year is calculated is based on the profits of the Crown Estate.
This is a property business owned by the Sovereign but is run independently and goes to the Treasury.
Based on its profit, the Grant is 15 percent of the Crown Estate profits generated two years previously. However, it’s all going to change.
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According to reports, it could be as much as £130 million next year, jumping by 53 percent.
This is because it has been allegedly agreed that the taxpay will pay an additional £45 million to upkeep the palaces, which also includes renovations and the replacement of two old helicopters.
In the grand scheme of things- it’s still less than they make for the economy.
There are a couple of other ways the Royal Family makes money.
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For example, the Privy Purse income is a private fund which is paid into by the Duchy of Lancaster.
It’s taxed and contributes to the King’s personal fund.
Duchy of Cornwall is something that funds the ‘private and official expenditure of the Household of The Prince and Princess of Wales’ and is also taxed.
The Royal Collection is a collection of art held by ‘The Sovereign in trust for Their successors and for the Nation’.
You’ll be pleased to hear that it’s overwhelmingly more than what the taxpayer pays them.
Recently, Regional Studies calculated that the ‘capital value of UK monarchy as a business’ was around £67.5 billion and it’s annual contribution to the UK economy could be approximately £1.766 billion.
Now that’s what I call a good investment.
However, that’s not all they contribute. According to the official Royal Family website, the royals provide a number of other things to the UK that isn’t necessarily monetary.
For example, it states that the Sovereign acts as a ‘focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service'.