The royals were praised yesterday for keeping their costs down, as it was revealed that the Queen and her family have slashed their annual costs by £3 million. The cost to the taxpayer was just £35 million last year, compared with the previous tax year’s figure of £38 million. After revealing the state of the royal accounts to the British public for the first time, Sir Michael Peat, the Queen’s Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “People are inclined to talk about how much the Queen costs the taxpayer. In fact, the Queen doesn’t cost the taxpayer anything.”
Sir Michael, a former accountant, went on to describe how the finances work. The revenues from the Crown Estate which are surrendered to the Treasury, have steadily increased over the past decade. In 1991-2, the sum contributed by the Queen to the public coffers totalled £91 million, while the 1999-2000 figure was up to £133 million. Over the same period, the royal outgoings have gone down from £83 million to £35 million. “The £48 million reduction together with the £42 million increase in Crown Estate revenue mean that the net annual contribution made by the Queen to the Exchequer has increased by £90 million during the last nine years,” he explained.
However, some MPs are said to be angry with the high costs of royal travel and there is a possibility that some senior family members will have to pay for their trips out of their own pockets. The royals who came in for the most criticism were the Prince of Wales, who spent £43,400 on two trips flying between the royal palaces, and Prince Andrew, who spent £26,000 flying to the US in his unofficial role as trade ambassador.
Labour MP Alan Williams, a senior member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “I certainly think the case for Prince Charles having his bills met is questionable. If he chooses to live in Gloucestershire (where Highgrove House is situated) that’s up to him but I don’t see why the state should accept it.” The main beef seems to be about the fact that many of the flights were made in a 21-seater BAe 146 jet, which costs £11,600 an hour to fly.
The report makes for fascinating reading – as well as shaving £210,000 off the royal electricity bill, the annual phone bill for the royal household works out at £660,000. Thirty-two porters are employed at an annual cost of £1 million to hang pictures and move furniture. But, said Sir Michael, the £35 million tab was, “in a Government context quite a small amount of money.” The British Library costs the taxpayer £85 million a year to run, and the Welsh language TV channel £77 million.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
