Queen Gets £5m Boost in Funding
Toby Melville/Reuters
The palace gets annoyed when anyone describes the grant she receives for running the royal household as 'pay' so there will be the predictable irritation today as almost all the UK papers report on the Queen's £5m "pay rise".
However, it is true that the Queen is getting five million more quid this year than she got last year, to cover the running costs of the Queen's household and expenses to carry out her official duties, as the sovereign grant will total £36.1m for the 2013-14 financial year, up from £31m allocated during the previous 12 months. It also covers the maintenance of the royal palaces in England and the cost of royal travel for official engagements in the UK and overseas tours.
Under new arrangements the Queen receives 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate, the vast holdings of land and property technically owned by the Monarch, but surrendered to the nation for several centuries.
The Guardian reports that "around £10m is spent on the salaries of the Queen's staff, from footmen to chefs in the royal kitchen – but wages have been frozen for a number of years. The figure for official expenditure does not include the cost of providing security and police protection for members of the monarch."
Pressure group Republic, which campaigns gainst the monarchy, issued a statement saying As everyone else is seeing cuts to services and jobs it is unbelievable that our head of state will sit silently by as she is handed millions more in public money.” “We’ve had two years of royal celebrations that have cost the taxpayers millions – surely it’s time the Queen gave something back.”
“The elected Irish head of state volunteered a pay cut – our head of state keeps raking it in without a word of protest.”
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“The Crown Estate is not – and never has been – the personal property of the royals. The Windsors have no more right to its revenue than I do. To claim that it should fund their lavish lifestyle is deceitful and dishonest.”
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