Buckingham Palace has issued its annual financial statement, more commonly known as the Sovereign Grant Report, for the financial year 2024-25.
According to the report, the total Sovereign Grant for 2024-25 remained level at £86.3 million. This comprised of £51.8m for the Core Sovereign Grant and £34.5 million of funding for the Buckingham Palace Reservicing Programme.
How is the money given to The King calculated?
The Monarch owns the Crown Estate, effectively a property business that is run independently from the palace. Neither the Monarch or Royal Family have a say in the running of the estate and they do not take any profits from the estate.
When George III relinquished his income from the Crown Estate in 1760, which had hereunto funded the Royal Family, the Civil List began providing for them instead.
In 2012 this was replaced by the Sovereign Support Grant (sometimes just called the Sovereign Grant) which is based on the success of the Estate. Usually, the Privy Purse receives an amount equal to 15% of Crown Estate Profits for the last two years, which means that the Privy Purse receives less if the estate performs poorly.
But – at present – it receives an amount equal to 25% to help fund the decade-long refurbishment of Buckingham Palace which began in 2017.
What was the money spent on?
Royal staffing
Payroll costs increased by £2 million for 2024-2025 due to an increase of full-time equivalent staff to 539 people, an increase from last year’s 523. This cost the Sovereign Grant a total of £34 million.
This reflects a reduction in staff vacancies, some of which remained purposely unfilled during a period of flat funding. In the UK, employer contributions for national insurance have also increased in this Parliament.
Staff have also seen a pay increase of 6.4%, which does include the 9.7% increase in the National Living Wage from April 2024. We expect to see this trend continue next year, when the palace will also be hit by National Insurance contribution increases like most employers.
The newly re-opened East Wing of Buckingham Palace had increased costs for furniture and cleaning now that it is being used as an office space. There was also an impact on cleaning and catering contracts due to the increase of National Living Wage.
Travel
Official travel is a major expense for the Royal Family every year. This year travel cost £4.7 million, an increase of £500,000 from last years. This covers the cost of cars, the royal train, royal helicopter and flights for official visits. Members of the Royal Family use commercial flights to help costs and the environment.
The Royal Family took part in over 1,900 public engagements in the UK and overseas in this 12-month period, with The King and Queen responsible for 604 of these. As The King and Princess of Wales were beginning to undertake duties again, the need for travel increased throughout the year.
The most expensive trips were:
- £400,353 – a charter (or private) flight for The King and Queen for their official FCDO visit to Samoa, to attend the The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October.
- £80,139 – charter and helicopter flights for Their Majesties visit to Northern Ireland in March.
- £55,846 – charter and commercial flight for The Prince of Wales for his visit to Estonia.
- £39,791 – charter flight for The Duke of Edinburgh who visited The Royal Dragoon Guards, as their Colonel in Chief, while they were on operation CABRIT in Estonia and Poland.
One use of the Royal Train during this period cost just over £44,000. It took King Charles on a trip to Burton-on-Trent for various engagement, one of which was marking the 80th anniversary of J.C.B World Factory.
The King’s Helicopter Flight accepted a delivery of two new leased helicopters, which began service in March. These new helicopters are going to help reduce reliance on expensive fixed wing travel and increase the Royal Household’s ability to use Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
The decommissioning of the Royal Train, in anticipation of its contract expiry in 2027, will commence during the next year.
Entertaining
Official hospitality and housekeeping had a cost of £3.2 million, an increase of £600,000 from 2023-24. This is due to an increase of 24 catered events organised and hosted by the Royal Household.
A total of 828 events were hosted by the Royal Household, inviting some 93,000 guests, compared to last years 834 events with 109,000 guests. The bulk of these events were meetings (219) followed by audiences (178) and dinners (136), but most guests came to garden parties (56% of attendees) and receptions (11%).
Bills
The cost of utilities has increased by £300,000 compared to 2023-24, costing the Palace a total of £6 million to quite literally keep the lights on.
This has been caused by the cost of electricity increasing, as well as the closure of the Romney Hydro power station at Windsor which ‘resulted in greater reliance on the National Grid for part of the year’, but has been offset somewhat by the reduction in gas use.
Housekeeping and office costs
Many people write to members of the Royal Family for Christmas and birthdays as well as other events such as Trooping the Colour.
During 2024-25 the Royal Household received 123,861 items of correspondence, including 41,190 items contained well wishes for The King and The Princess of Wales, following their health announcements and cancer diagnoses.
The cost of postage, printing and stationary for replies to cards and letters was therefore £1.5 million, while the cost of cleaning and laundry was £1.4 million.
The Palace also provided some interesting stats relating to their communications, including there being 2,200 social media posts in the last financial year, seen 1.3 billion times, and more than 4 million new users to the royal website.
Security
The cost of security for the Royal Family does not form part of the Sovereign Grant. It comes from Home Office budgets via the Met Police.
Palace refurbishments
The reservicing programme in Buckingham Palace has made good progress with new electric and plumbing now in place (14,000m of wiring and 20,000m of pipes have been laid) along with a new lift shaft in the West Wing, supporting accessibility within the 18th century building.
The East Wing was opened to the public for the first time due to the completion of reservicing in this area. This particular project saw the handing of historic wallpaper in the Yellow Drawing Room and the commissioning and printing of a replica Victorian wallpaper for the Chinese Dining Room.
It saw over 10,000 visitors during 2024-25, with the cost of all works totalling £22.6 million for this period, while core maintenance across the residences cost £18.6 million.
Core maintenance work that took place during 2024-25 was the removal of asbestos from Buckingham Palace Mews, a new store tower roof at Windsor Castle recycling the old lead, plate heat exchanges and East Terrace garden landscaping both at Windsor Castle, as well as additional fire protection at Buckingham Palace.
Charles III is passionate about sustainability and the report shows strong foundations are being built for the Royal Household’s Sustainability Programme, which was established in the 2023-24 report. It’s aim is to ensure the Royal Household is on track to be net zero for direct emissions by 2040.
How the Palace supplemented the Sovereign Grant
Supplementary income for the Sovereign Grant increased by £1.7 million, bringing the total to £21.5 million. This was due to an increase in the facilities management charge from the Royal Collection Trust, caused by a record year of visitors to Buckingham Palace during the summer opening which included the new tours of the East Wing.
There was also a £900,000 increase in other income from the sale of the outgoing helicopters, higher income from the cellars as well as from delivering more events on behalf of the Royal Family. The report notes however that the Windsor Farm shop has been transferred to the Crown Estate’s management.
The back up funds
Finally, the reserve for the Sovereign Grant has increased by almost £3 million, from £5.5 million to £8.3 million. These are the funds that the palace can fall back on for unexpected costs arising, has been explained by lower spending that last year.
Comment from the Palace
James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse, has said ‘soft power is hard to measure but it’s value is, I believe, now firmly understood at home and abroad, as the core themes of the new reign have come into even sharper focus, and the Royal Family have continued in their service to the nation, Realms and Commonwealth’.
