Monarchy income to jump to £130m as royal household annual earnings report show Crown Estate profits soar

Profits soared to £1.1bn for the Crown Estate, which means that the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant which goes towards facilitating the Royal Family will increase from £86.5m to £132m in 2025/26. The increase is said by officials to be going towards the final stages of a 10-year renovation of Buckingham palace, which is budgeted at £369m.

A palace spokesman said that the income boost for the royal family will be reviewed through legislation in 2026/27. This reviews is said to be in place to keep the funding at an “appropriate level”.

The Buckingham Palace annual accounts were published on Wednesday morning after being delayed due to the general election. In the reports, it was also detailed that the royal household will take delivery of two new helicopters to replace two 15-year-old aircraft. There will also be work done to convert the King’s state Bentleys to run on biofuel, with a view of making a switch to electric cars eventually.

Sir Michael Stevens, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said that the coronation of King Charles II and Queen Camilla in May 2023 was a “glorious moment” which have been followed by moments of “personal challenge”. He said: “If that was the high point in a royal calendar that would contain many subsequent moments of significance on the public stage, then there were also moments of personal challenge for the family at home, which have affected this year’s report in a rather different way.

“In the early part of 2024 came the sad news that both His Majesty the King and the Princess of Wales would be withdrawing from public-facing duties temporarily, to prioritise their treatment and recovery from cancer. This inevitably impacted on the number and nature of engagements that had been planned – though may I say how encouraging it is to see the King back performing so many public duties and, more recently, the princess similarly well enough to join the King’s Birthday Parade and the men’s Wimbledon final.”

Official travel costs for the monarchy rose from £3.9m to £4.2m, with the King and Queen’s trip to Kenya by charter flight the most expensive trip of the year at £166,557. Hospitality and housekeeping totalled £2.6m, but overall expenditure fell from £107.5m to £89.9m.

Graham Smith, of Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, said: “People rightly complain about the cost of the Rwanda scheme, yet we have spent more over the same period on the royals. Every year the official funding for the royals just keeps going up. Yet the Sovereign Grant is just a small part of the estimated £345m or more the British people spend on the royals every year.

“Add the profits of the two Duchies, which are state assets, the bloated security bill and costs met by local councils around the country and the total bill is huge. By comparison the Irish president costs around four million euros, a fraction of the cost for someone doing a similar job, but someone elected and accountable to do it.”