Actually, the Queen already gives plenty of money to the government

Over the past week, an online petition calling for the royals to pay for Buckingham Palace’s £369 million refurbishment has gathered steam – and a lot of people are really rather angry.

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It’s not quite ‘Off with their heads’ territory, but it’s not far off.

But they’re ignoring one, vital fact – the Queen has already contributed many times that price to the Treasury – £2.4 billion over the past ten years, to be precise.

Copywriter Mark Johnson, who started the petition, wrote: ‘There is a national housing crisis, the NHS is in crisis, austerity is forcing cuts in many front line services. Now the Royals expect us to dig deeper to refurbish Buckingham Palace.
The Crown’s wealth is inestimable. This is, in a word, outrageous.’
But it’s not quite as simple as Mr Johnson makes it appear.

The way things work is that the Queen is paid a grant – initially set at 15% – out of the income from the Crown Estates, the rest of which is taken by the Treasury.

The Crown Estates is basically the hereditary land owned by the Royal family – including gems such as the freehold to Regent Street – although it’s now managed by a company on behalf of the Crown and the Government.

The income from it is a whacking great amount of money – £300 million a year, give or take, most of which goes straight to the government.

So you can at least argue that the Queen is paying her own way – although strictly speaking she does not ‘own’ the Crown Estates, as she cannot sell them, and the revenue from them does not belong to her.

The controversy is actually over raising the amount of money the Queen keeps from the income from the Crown Estates – in order to finance the repairs.
Senior Labour MPs have already urged the Royal Family to consider footing some of the repair bill.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said he “certainly wouldn’t send the cheque back” if a donation was forthcoming.

The Buckingham Palace refit will include replacing boilers and miles of cables, pipes and electrical wires when it begins in April next year, subject to Parliamentary approval.

Occupied royal palaces are held in trust for the nation and are not owned by the Queen.