Queen is given a 'pay-rise': Her Majesty to receive inflation-busting 22% increase over next two years

Monarch set to be given £37.9million next
year, up from £31million this year
The Queen is said to be down to her 'last
million'
But spending on Royal Household has
fallen in last 20 years, claims report
Queen Elizabeth is set to get an inflation-
busting pay rise of 22 per cent for
2014/2015
The Queen is set to receive an inflation-
busting 22 per cent ‘pay rise’ over two
years, according to new official figures.
The monarch is said to be ‘down to her last
£1 million’, leaving her vulnerable to
‘unexpected costs’, a report has said.
She is now expected to be given £37.9
million in 2014-15 to run her Household
and conduct official engagements, up from
£31 million in 2012-13.
The figures were released yesterday by the
National Audit Office which has, for the
first time, been allowed to examine all
aspects of the Queen’s funding as Head of
State.
But while recommending the increase, their
report goes on to highlight what it
describes as ‘significant reductions’ in the
monarchy’s funding over the last 20 years.
It says that grants for royal travel on
official engagements both at home and
abroad has been slashed by 76 per cent in
real terms.
The maintenance for royal palaces,
including Buckingham Palace and Windsor
Castle, was similarly reduced by an
impressive 60 per cent.
That has left, according to the NAO, a huge
backlog in property maintenance, with 39
per cent of occupied royal palace being
deemed below their ‘target condition’.
In order to cope with the shortfall the
Queen’s money men have been
dramatically scaling back their spending,
reducing net expenditure by 55 per cent in
real terms.
According to the figures, that led to real-
term expenditure of £32.9 million in
2011-2012, compared to £72.6million in
1991-92.
In order to help meet the shortfall, the
Queen has repeatedly eaten into her
savings - known as ‘drawing down on
reserves’ - over the years and is,
apparently, down to her last £1 million in
the bank.
The NAO, which scrutinises public spending
for Parliament and is independent of
government, says this poses serious
questions about the palace’s ability to cope
in an unexpected crisis if, say, the roof of
Buckingham Palace fell down.
‘As part of its long-term planning the
Household may need to consider whether
the Reserve is adequate to meet
unexpected costs,’ it says.
The NAO report will be put before
parliament’s powerful Public Accounts
Committee on Monday as part of as
investigation into royal finances,
Until last year the monarch was funded by
a complicated combination of civil list
payments and government grants.
Following an extensive review of royal
finances by the government, the Queen
now receives one single pot of money
known as the Sovereign Grant to largely
spend as she wishes on everything from
funding her office to repairing the palace
roof.
The maintenance for royal palaces,
including Buckingham Palace and Windsor
Castle, has been reduced by 60 per cent
over the last 20 years
In each of the last six years, the Queen’s
programme has on average seen her
conduct more than 300 engagements in
addition to 3,000 trips by the rest of the
Royal Family , six gardens parties and more
than 26 investitures.
The money is taken from the Crown Estate,
a wealthy portfolio of agricultural land,
buildings and property - ranging from a
retail park in Liverpool to London’s Regent
Street - which historically belonged to the
monarchy but the profits of which have,
since the reign of George 111, gone to the
Treasury.
This year the Crown Estate announced
record revenue of £253 million
As a result of protracted - and sometimes
combative - negotiations with Downing
Street, the monarch is now, for the first
time in two centuries, entitled to keep 15
per cent of its profits with the rest going to
the Treasury.
Its entire holdings are now worth an
astonishing £8.1 billion and the NAO says
that profits are likely to continue to rise,
meaning the Queen will enjoy further
increases in funding to come.
The palace insists most of its extra cash will
be spent on a ‘massive backlog’ of repairs
to royal palaces, which the Queen holds in
trust on behalf of the nation.
It has long complained of having to put off
millions of pounds worth of essential
repairs due to those real-term falls in
funding.
Buckets are frequently used to catch water
leaks in the picture gallery while none of
the state rooms, regularly used for
entertaining heads of state, have not been
decorated in more than sixty years.
The new NAO report also highlights the
royal household’s efforts to increase
income through money-spinning schemes
such as renting out its facilities for
commercial events. This has generated a
rise of 54 per cent in profits, £11.6 million
last year alone.
Other nuggets in the report show that the
monarch’s 436 staff cost her £19.5million a
year, although anyone earning more than
£21,000 has had their pay frozen since
2011 in a bid to cut bills.
Last year the family spent £4.5 million on
travel, a real term reduction of 30 per cent
in the last decade, as royals were told to
stop using private jets and take scheduled
flights instead of that £900,000 was spent
on rail journeys last year and £1.6 million
on helicopters. The royal train, which was
used just 15 times last year at an average
cost of more than £25,000 is now under
review again.
Chris Heaton-Harris, Conservative member
of the Public Accounts Committee, who set
to quiz the Queen’s chief ‘bean counter’,
Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Alan Reid, on
Monday as part of the royal finances
investigation said: ‘It is the first time the
PAC or parliament has had this level of
access to the Royal Household’s accounts.
‘We want to show we take our
responsibilities very seriously and be sure
the Royal Household is giving good value
for money.
‘I think this kind of scrutiny can only be
good for the monarchy.’

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