Love her or loathe her the Queen and the Royal family are an institutional part of this country and don’t seem to disappearing from the headlines especially considering the latest free-riding member being born into a lavish lifestyle pretty much funded by us the taxpayer.
So what is the
real cost?
In a survey
taken in 2012 it was worked out that the queen has a total net worth of 450
million USD which in comparison to the King of Thailand who came in at 30 billion USD it doesn’t look so bad. But when you put it
into context that the British monarchy is 112 times as expensive as the Irish
president and is more than twice as expensive as both the French semi-presidential
system and the Dutch monarchy. In fact it is the most expensive royal family in
the whole of Europe.
It could be
said that the British Royal family are some of the most famous and well known
people in the world and they certainly hold some level of influence and power.
Yet in the Uk the queen is only considered a constitutional monarch, which
means that she acts as head of state only within the boundaries of the
constitution. She is not an absolute monarch unlike Saudi Arabia where King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz rules with zero constitution,
although there is a royal decree which states he must comply with sharia law,
but no elections have ever taken place nor are they allowed. It remains without
a democracy.
Here in the UK
the Queens role in British politics is largely symbolic, and a role which has
been described as ‘’A focus of National unity’’ it pretty much boils down to
being a tourist attraction
One of the
biggest arguments for the British Monarchy is the amount of tourist revenue it
brings in.
So how what are
the figures? Well in a report made by visit Britain in2012 it was revealed that
the queen and Royal family generated an estimated 500 million in tourism
revenue every year.
But do these
revenues come anywhere close to paying for the monarchy? Well we know thats not
true.
Obviously the
majority goes back into the upkeep and wages of the staff, but the funding for
the Tower of London is entirely reliant on government grants and the money from
visitors to function and maintain the buildings.
In 2004 Buckingham
palace asked the government ministers for money to heat the palace from a fund
reserved for low income families.
Royal aides
claimed that the gas and electricity bills had risen by 50% in a year raising
costs by nearly £1million. They complained the £15million grant to cover the
queens palaces was inadequate and energy bills had become ‘untenable’.
The application
was rejected, but it was also revealed that the Queens deputy treasurer had
written to the department of culture, media and sport for a grant to replace 4
heating and power units in Windsor castle and Buckingham palace.
It is obvious
that tourist revenue can’t even manage
to maintain the upkeep of the
attractions themselves so as to what gain it really is can be said to be
questionable in the least.
Whoever is
reigning King or Queen is automatically
made benefactor of the crown estate. This is a property portfolio worth
£8.1billion of real estate including urban property, land, mineral rights and
even 12 nautical miles off the English coast line.
Although none of these assets can technically be sold off they generate a profit of nearly £260million pounds a year.
This money does not go into a royal bank account, well at least Not since 1760. After running up an embarrassing amount of public debt in the early 1700s, King George III was forced to surrender his family's hereditary rights to The Crown Estate in exchange for an annual allowance to pay for the King's household expenses and royal obligations.
The annual allowance was adjusted periodically but stayed relatively unchanged for more than two hundred years. In April 2012, Parliament passed the "Sovereign Grant" which entitles the sitting monarch to the rough equivalent of 15% of revenues from The Crown Estate.
The remaining money goes directly to the Treasury. The Queen does not actually profit off The Crown Estate, she is just entitled to services equivalent to the predetermined amount.
Yet the estimated total annual cost of the monarchy to taxpayers is £202.4m, around five times the official figure published by the royal household (£38.3m last year). The official figure excludes a number of costs, including round-the-clock security, lavish royal visits and lost revenue from the
Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. Civil List expenditure has increased by 94 per cent in real terms over the last two decades.
Putting this into real terms £202.4m is equivalent to 9,560 nurses, 8,200 police officers and more than the total annual Ministry of Defense spending on food. The total cost is also equivalent to a number of high profile government cuts, including cuts to the Sure Start program.
It is also of noticeable mention that the Queen does not pay any taxes on these state provided benefits.
However, since 1992 she has voluntarily agreed to pay personal and capital gains tax on her other sources of private income, like any other taxpayer.
The Queen's private income, also known as the Privy Purse, is mainly derived from her ownership of The Duchy of Lancaster, a 46,000 acre territory that has been passed down to the sitting monarch since 1399.
The Queen earns around £16 million per year off The Duchy of Lancaster and she uses this money to fund expenses incurred by the extended Royal Family. There is only one other Duchy in England, The Duchy of Cornwall.
The Duchy of Cornwall was established in 1337 and is passed to the eldest living heir of the reigning British monarch. Up until April 2013,
The Duchy of Cornwall could only be passed to a male heir and the monarch did not have a son, the estate was held by the Crown for the next generation.
Prince Charles is the current Duke of Cornwall and when he becomes King, the Duchy passes to Prince William and in turn to William's eldest child when William is king.
Thanks to April's "Succession of the Crown Act", if Kate Middleton had given birth to a girl when William becomes king that child would have been the first woman in history to inherit the Duchy.
The Duchy is roughly the size of the city of Chicago and produces income mainly from apartment rentals, agriculture sales and natural resources. In 2012, the Duchy of Cornwall produced a profit of £19million for Charles.
He voluntarily pays a 40% tax rate on that income which equaled roughly £4.4 million. The total estimated value of the Duchy of Cornwall is £762million Interestingly, though Charles volunteers to pay taxes, the Duchy itself does not.
Think of the Duchy of Cornwall like a corporation that does not have to pay any taxes. For example, the Duchy owns the land that houses Dartmoor prison.
Dartmoor pays approx. £1.3million in rent to the Duchy for the use of that land.. Many royal critics cry foul at this arrangement and would love to see the Duchy pay capital gains and corporate taxes like any other major business operation.
As a helicopter search and rescue pilot for the Royal Air Force Prince William earned £45,000 a year and his brother Prince Harry currently makes £39,000 as a Captain in the British Army.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is entitled to an annual salary of approx. £371,000 for his duties as the Queen's spouse.
Additional annuities in the £100-£250,000 range exist for The Duke of York, The Earl of Wessex, The Duke of Gloucester and various other Princesses and Duchesses. Every year, Queen Elizabeth reimburses the state for these annuities from her own bank accounts.
Republic
website (trying to change the system and abolish the monarchy):- http://www.republic.org.uk/index.php
Wiki link:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_British_Royal_Family
Blog by Our boy from the Valleys >> https://twitter.com/Welsh_Gar
Blog by Our boy from the Valleys >> https://twitter.com/Welsh_Gar
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