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MPs tell cash-strapped Queen to tighten her belt
Sri Carmichael25.09.08
The Queen could face a cash crisis by 2011 but her secret pleas to the Government for extra money are being refused, it was claimed today.
Palace aides have told ministers the monarchy's finances have been eroded by inflation and more money is needed to pay for the royal family's official duties and the upkeep of its palaces.
But the credit crunch has ravaged the Government's budgets and it says it cannot provide extra funding.
As the dispute grows behind closed doors, royal officials are reminding ministers of their constitutional duty to protect the Queen's financial security.
They say Parliament must increase both the £15 million it pays to maintain the Royal Estate, and the £7.9 million for the Civil List, which pays for the senior royals' official functions.
Without a state bail-out, the Queen will be unable to balance her books within the next three years, an investigation by accountants Baker Tilly claims.
If the monarchy keeps spending at the current rate, by 2011 soaring prices will take the bill for maintaining the Royal Household to more than double the £7.9 million allocated each year.
This year's Buckingham Palace accounts show Civil List expenditure will reach £14.4 million.
Royal aides say there is already a £ 32million black hole in the accounts, with the cash needed to pay for a backlog of repairs. The Treasury will only say that an announcement on the Civil List will be made "in due course".
A Palace source said: "I am not convinced [ministers] are listening very carefully to our arguments. It is a major disappointment."
Royal officials have called for a VAT exemption on the payment of services rendered to the Queen, which is applied to government departments.
Palace accounts show the Queen's reserve, which has been drawn on extensively in recent years, will be wiped out by 2011. Some of the Civil List is invested in the stock market, which has tumbled.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport, which decides the monarchy's funding, saw the total bill rise to £40million last year. Amid criticism of the amount spent on travel, some MPs have called for the royal accounts to be publicly audited.
Meanwhile, it emerged today that Downing Street is proposing to allow Catholics to take the throne. Plans have been drawn up to end their 300-year-old exclusion and end the requirement that succession automatically passes to a male. No 10 is said to want the legislation passed in a fourth term.
Reader views (19)
The Queen says she needs more cash to fund the repair of the roof of Buckingham Palace because it is leaking during rain. I recommend plastic buckets which can be bough for 1 Pound each. I am willing to donate a fiver to the poor royals
- John Myers, London/UK
What makes Alan think the tourists come to see the Queen? I am also from Texas and I have never met the Queen and I know no one who has. The museums, architecture, palaces etc would be here for the tourists (just as they are in France) regardless, even if the Queen is no longer the Head of State. I know of no tourists who come to the UK just to see the Queen.
As a resident of the UK, I am constantly reminded of the wastefulness of the royals. They own a huge percentage of the country yet they expect the government to support them. If they have a "cash crisis", why don't they sell something valuable to "make ends meet" like we would if we owned priceless art and thousands of acres of real estate?
- Morgan, London UK
The country is bust. Government as a whole needs to cut spending and taxes, but we dont hear anything about that from 'prudence, boom and bust is dead Brown' do we. Just more about how the Government is going to borrow more. What about living to your means!
- Ian, Bristol
The Windsor family are really little better than the "scroungers" which correspondents rightly denigrate. It is time we had a full and adult debate on the non-elected Head of State in the UK - and the massive entourage which goes with it. If the US correspondents like it so much then they can have it. Vive le Republique.
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England.
Its ok looking after the Queen, what about the hangers on such as air miles Andy and others?
- Billy Scrivens, cardiff uk
Typical labour attitude. Give money to a load of benefit scroungers like unmarried mothers, illegal immigrants and other assorted dross but deny it to the Queen who is the main attraction for hordes of paying tourists who support the UK economy. She is over 80 years of age and still carrying out her duties. What a useless, two faced government. I trust that if and when the Tories win the next election they will reverse this outrageous decision.
- Alan Preen, McLean, Texas, USA
Please could the ignorant people of this land do some reasearch on what the monarchy cost us as a taxpayer, and what the monarchy actually brings in to the treasury, you will find they are worth every penny. The treasury takes almost every penny from the crown estate. I personally would pay what it takes to keep the royal family but i do begrudge paying for lazy job shy folk around the country that cost us alot more.
- Simon, London
Well done Stuart Pinell, too many people in this country are completely ignorant to the benefits the Government (ergo the taxpayer) receives off the back of Crown Estates.
Who seriously would swap their lives to be the Queen and fulfill all her duties? Do you imagine it is easy doing all those public appearances, charity support, and eating crow every time some two-bit cowboy president from another country shows up?
The Government loves stirring up anti-Crown hatered, it reinforces an antiquated class system belief, thereby encouraging a "them and us" idea that keeps the ignorant supporting Labour.
Will all you royalty haters be happy when the country's famous castles fall down around to the ground? Shame on you for having no sense of pride in your heritage.
- Rachelle, London
How selfish the Royal Family are. I agree we should support the Queen, but only the Queen. The Prince of Wales has the income from Cornwall so he does not need any extra (although I believe he gets nothing, or very little from the Civil list. But let the rest earn the money themselves. Some are preapred to take the money but not gie anythign back i.e carry out no or few public engagements.
Stop them from using private jets. Let them go by train if it is cheaper than air.
If the Roayl family think so much of this country they should do all they can to help, ezpecially in this financial climate.
- E Sullivan, London
Well said, Jilly! You have said it all and quite eloquently. You have spoken THE TRUTH. I don't know how QE II and her husband and their family sleep at night but I imagine they sleep quite comfortably and soundly indeed.
- Joan, London, England
Stop giving grace and favour dwellings - by that I mean free (or cheap) accommodation and make the family members pay market rates as the rest of us have to do. Let the 'little darlings' get jobs and make their way into the world without trading on "Do you know who I am"
- Mary, Essex
I Love Steve Chapman's comment: "The crown estate has enormous wealth and assets. The Royal Family should set an example in these straightened times by cutting costs,selling off what it can, and using its own assets to ensure that necessary duties and repairs to proerty can be maintained. If they do not do this, it will be another step towards the monarchys' demise."
Excellent. So, following this logic, the Royal Family will take back into their personal ownership all the property which is administered by the Government. I think, including the Royal Parks, the land is worth several billion pounds. The money the Government make in rent on the land far outstrips the cost of the civil list.
Yes, in exchange for this, the Royal Family are exempted death duties and loosing a share of the land whenever the monarch dies. But the money that they would get in for selling what they legally own, would including death duties (I believe) be more than the civil list would provide for about 100 years including death duties.
What our country can afford? It can't afford to loose that land. (Oh yes, and if we abolish the monarchy while we are part of Europe, European law is clear that the land does belong to them).
I like the Royal Family for emotional and historic reasons. Those who want to abolish it should really look at the practical problems!
- Stuart Pinel, London
Benefits are for people who can't pay their bills/hold down a job/look after themselves, not for the Royal Family. Stop paying them. How dare they come back saying it's not enough. Clear off. There are genuinely needy people who could do with the money.
- Jilly, London, UK.
Shock horror, don't tell me Queenie will have to dig into her reserves - like 99% of her subjects - during this recession! My heart bleeds for her, well actually, no it doesn't at all...
- Marianne, S W France
My respect for the Queen plummeted when she didn't stand up for the British people and tell Brown that she would not approve the Lisbon Treaty without approval from the British people. Only the people of a country can change the system of government. The Lisbon Treaty allows those outside the U.K. by a majority vote to say how Brits will be governed in 61 areas, effectively changing the U.K. from country to a province of a federal state. The Queen is the guardian of the people's sovereign rights. Under the constitution she is not part of the Government. But on 12 June last she acted as if she were part of the government when she rubber-stamped U.K. ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Brown's Government never had the legal power to give away part of British sovereignty without British consent, and the Queen acted illegally in approving Brown's action. Her duty was to the people, not to the Brown Government. The Lisbon Treaty ratification was not the usual legislation that she was used to signing off and by custom always has signed off; it was the first legislation to give away sovereignty without retention of veto in the U.K. government. She should have acted accordingly, and told Brown that she would only sign if the people approved. The easy course was just to show up and sign, not making any waves. For this reason, my lifelong respect for the Queen is now gone. If she wants to act as part of the Government, let her compete for its money like other departments.
- Phil Jones, London, UK.
We need to say no to giving her any money just as we'd say no to any other person on the dole.
- Chris, Teeside, UK.
Oh well! Welcome to the real world.
- Robert, Hedemora, Sweden
The crown estate has enormous wealth and assets. The Royal Family should set an example in these straightened times by cutting costs,selling off what it can, and using its own assets to ensure that necessary duties and repairs to proerty can be maintained. If they do not do this, it will be another step towards the monarchys' demise.
- Steve Chapman, Liverpool, UK
It is the Government ~ Stupid!
If we are to allow a Catholic (of which I am one) to become Head of State, we lose the uniqueness of Great Britain and undermine the last four or five hundred years of history.
The whole point of Britain leaving the Catholic Church (apart from satisfying a lustful Monarch his serial adultery) was because being under the jurisdiction of Rome was not democratic.
A Catholic Monarch's inbuilt loyalty would always be first and foremost to Rome.
That, would not ever be right for Britain and in the unlikely event the law is changed and a Catholic becomes Head of State ~ it will be the end of the Monarchy.
Perhaps that is what this Government is trying to achieve!
- Anne Kent, Dorset
