How transparent are the royals being about money?

The Sovereignty Grant has always been theoretically open and accountable; but at the same time it seemed quite incomprehensible to most people. This annual public payment for the monarchy’s operating expenses is based on a percentage of the Crown Estate’s profits.

But the money comes from the Treasury, not the Crown Estate, an independent property company.

Adding another layer of complexity is that the Sovereign Endowment has been increased for 10 years of building work at Buckingham Palace, with a particularly sharp two-year increase bringing the endowment this year to almost £138 million, a record high.

The grant will be reduced to £99.9 million for the first time since it was introduced in 2012 and will remain so for five years.

This is a real reduction in the headline figure. And it’s a decision signed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves that could be one of the last major changes under the current administration.

There is a complication, though. While the total Government Grant will be reduced, the underlying core amount will be much higher than before construction work started. It is falling, but not to where it was before, even if we take inflation into account.

It’s like how oil prices rise due to an international incident, and even when they come down from their peak, they won’t go back to where they started.

Before the first increase for building work, the Government Grant in 2016-17 was around £43 million; This figure would now be around £58 million once inflation is taken into account, according to figures from the House of Commons Library.

So the “lower” figure of £99.9 million compared to £138 million is still considerably higher than the equivalent amount before the increase for palace construction works. It has been reduced, but increased to a much higher level than before.

More recently, in 2024-25, the core amount of the grant, excluding extras for construction, was around £52 million; This was significantly lower than what will be the new baseline funding level from next year.