The Royal Family's Sovereign Grant to be doubled from £40m to £76m

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...over-10-years/
http://order-order.com/

Sovereign Grant to be doubled from £40m to £76m starting next year

The Royal Family's Sovereign Grant to be doubled to fund restoration of Buckingham Palace over next decade

Throne Room of Buckingham Palace

The Queen is to be given £369 million of taxpayers’ money to carry out a 10-year refit of Buckingham Palace.

The cash has been approved by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, and is expected to be rubber-stamped by Parliament in the next six months.

The move is likely to prove controversial, coming at a time when public sector services are facing cuts and pay freezes as a result of the Government’s austerity drive.

But surveyors said that unless urgent work was carried out to replace ancient cabling, plumbing and other services, there was a serious danger of “potentially catastrophic building failure” in years to come.

The work will include replacing 100 miles of electrical cabling - much of it 60 years old - 30 miles of water pipes, 6,500 electrical sockets, 5,000 light fittings, 2,500 radiators and 500 pieces of sanitaryware.

It will also involve lifting 30,000sq m of floorboards, the equivalent of three-and-a-half football pitches.

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal family will remain in residence while the work is carried out between 2017 and 2027, but temporary accommodation will be built in the gardens of the Palace for some of the 37 staff who live there.

The Queen will, however, have to move out of her apartments for a period when they come to be refitted.

The work will be funded through an increase in the Sovereign Grant - the money given to the Queen which is based on profits of the Crown Estate.

The Queen currently receives the equivalent of 15 per cent of the profits of the Crown Estate - the monarch’s property portfolio which is now in the hands of the Treasury - but that will go up to 25 per cent for the duration of the work.

It means the Queen will receive £76.1m in 2017/18, an increase of £30m on what she was previously expected to receive.

A disgrace that they've been allowed to get in such a condition. The Palace of Westminster (Parliament) is literally falling apart and is going to cost £5bn+ to put right. This is what happens when everything is just patched up for decades. Both buildings look very grand on television, but if you visit Parliament up close as I did earlier this year you really notice how battered and worn it is: needs a full restoration project which is in the pipeline.

Canada is currently in the process of fully refurbishing their Parliament buildings. Work began earlier this decade.

Thoughts?

[lawrawrrr]

it's ok cos it's the money we're saving from brexit right right

NHS on the big red brexit bus actually stand for new house (for) sovereigns

[xxMATTGxx]

It's a hell of a lot of money but it's something we should definitely keep. If they did the repair jobs at the time they needed to be done - It wouldn't be in this mess today and would not cost as much.

[-:Undertaker:-]

@xxMATTGxx;

It goes to show how serious Parliament's condition is really if this is costing £300m compared to £5bn+ for Westminster. Buckingham Palace is bad enough: I think it was only last year part of the ceiling of the State Banqueting Hall fell down and it had to be closed off.

Been following the progress on Canada's Parliament Hill complex for a while now. Looks really impressive, especially the new copper roofing.

[Alkaz]

The Crown Estate has raised over £2.4 billion for the treasury over the past 10 years. It will raise that again plus more in the next 10 years so really, what is £369m in comparison to safe guard the palace.

I love how this news is headline news but next to no one knows of the astronomical cost of the restoration to the Palace of Westminster.

[FlyingJesus]

Like Joe said it's money they raised anyway - realistically if they wanted they could take everything that the Crown Estate earns but obv they don't do that

[scottish]

absolute waste of money

knock the building down and stick her in a flat.

[-:Undertaker:-]

absolute waste of money

knock the building down and stick her in a flat.

Goodbye Edinburgh Castle then I guess.

We can't afford the upkeep of that, especially when Nicola wants to jet around the world as if she's a world leader.

[scottish]

it's only useful for new years anyway

[dbgtz]

Since when did getting rid of the monarchy also mean getting rid of the cool buildings