The British royal family’s annual income will rise to £132 million (approx. $275 million) for the next two years, according to newly released accounts.
The Sovereign Grant report shows that the royal family received £86.3 million (approx. $180 million) last year from the government, the same amount as in the previous three years.
The Sovereign Grant is the annual payment the royal family receives from the government to cover its official costs including for travel, property maintenance and the operating costs of royal household.
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The royal family’s travel expenses have been released in the annual Sovereign Grant report. (Getty)
Profits from the Crown Estate are paid directly to the Treasury, which hands a proportion of the money, known as the Sovereign Grant and currently set at 12 per cent, back to fund the official duties of the royal family.
The total grant of £86.3 million is comprised of a £51.8 million (approx. $106 million) core grant and £34.5 million (approx. $71 million) to fund the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
The royal household is to receive a temporary boost of £91.6 million (approx. $190 million) in public funds over the next two years for the reservicing work on Buckingham Palace. The additional money is to ensure the 10-year, £369 million project is done on time.
The King and Queen’s finances are released each year and show how much the monarchy costs the public. (Getty)
The mammoth project is expected to be completed by 2027.
According to the report, royal family members undertook more than 1,900 public engagements in the UK and overseas.
More than 93,000 guests attended 828 events at the royal palaces, it added.
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James Chalmers, the new keeper of the privy purse, who is responsible for the royal finances, said that the past financial year had been “something of a return to normal business” for the royal family and King Charles, who is still being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.
King Charles and Queen Camilla, pictured this year at Royal Ascot. (Getty)
The report has also revealed that Frogmore Cottage, the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Windsor, remains empty.
It was rumoured to have been earmarked for the Duke of York if he left Royal Lodge.
Royal train scrapped
In a cost-cutting move, the royal train will be taken out of service by 2027, after nearly £78,000 (approx. $163,000) was spent on two trips in the past year, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The royal train – which had been used extensively for events during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year-reign – requires regular, specialised maintenance work.
Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex arrive by Royal Train in June, 2018. (Getty)
Decommissioning the train is estimated to save the royal household about £1 million (approx. $2 million) a year.
The carriages were last updated in the 1980s and the decision to scrap the train, rather than modernise it, was made with King Charles and Prince William.
The nine-carriage royal train will go on a tour around the UK before it is removed from service, after which it could go on public display.
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“The royal train has, of course, been a part of national life for many decades, loved and cared for by all those involved, but in moving forwards we must not be bound by the past,” Chalmers said.
“Just as so many parts of the royal household’s work have modernised and adapted to reflect the world of today, so too the time has come to bid the fondest of farewells.”
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Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to journey by train when she travelled from Slough to London Paddington in June, 1842.
Costly Australian tour
Royal travel costs rose by £500,000 (approx. $1 million) from the previous year, to £4.7 million (approx. $9.8 million).
The most expensive trip was the King and Queen’s visit to Australia and Samoa, which cost £400,000 (approx. $837,000). British taxpayer money was used to fund 50 per cent of the visit, while the British and Australian governments split the air travel bill.
The King and Queen’s visit to Australia cost British taxpayers $837,000. (Getty)
The British government is understood to have contributed rather than Australia footing the entire bill because the King and Queen were travelling on to Samoa after leaving Sydney.
The most expensive form of royal travel was by helicopter, with £1.6 million (approx. $3.3 million) spent on trips.
Prince William’s pay cut
A separate financial report for the Duchy of Cornwall, the estates which provide an income for the Prince of Wales, showed he had taken a slight pay cut.
The Duchy of Cornwall’s profits were at £22.9 million (approx. $47.9 million), down £700,000 (approx. $1.4 million) from the previous financial year (2023-2024).
Following recent criticism of the duchy’s finances Will Bax, the duchy’s new secretary, said some charitable organisations and community groups would have their rents waived and others with 50 per cent reductions.
Although the move would is would cost “significant sums”, it was part of Prince William’s focus on turning the duchy into a social enterprise and reflecting the royal’s interest in projects such as reducing homelessness and fighting climate change.
Prince William, as Prince of Wales, receives the majority of his personal wealth from the Duchy of Cornwall, which he inherited from his father upon the late Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.
That extensive estate is worth more than £1 billion (approximately $1.8 billion) and includes 52,450 hectares of land, mostly in the south-west of England.
Prince William, Prince of Wales, visits Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor, an ancient woodland on Duchy of Cornwall land, July 11 2023. (Andrew Parsons / Kensington Pala)
The surplus is used to fund the private lives of Prince William and Catherine, their children and their official work.
For a second year in a row, Kensington Palace declined to reveal the amount of tax paid by Prince William.
However Ian Patrick, the prince’s private secretary said: “The Prince of Wales pays the highest rate of income tax”.
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