The Sovereign Grant: A Complex Quid Pro Quo
No extra income for Queen Camilla, who will not receive a compensation from the British Parliament as Prince Philip, husband of Elizabeth II, did. The activities of the Queen Consort will be fully funded by the Sovereign Grant, a public contribution paid to the Crown in exchange for a percentage of the revenues of the Crown Estate (a financial portfolio which includes, among others, numerous real estate properties). Queen Camilla will not receive an extra from Parliament for her public activities. A particularly complex and balanced quid pro quo, from which of course other gains of the monarchy are excluded, such as those from the Buckingham Palace merchandising. Considering the numerous incomes of the family, the new queen did not consider it necessary to have an extra, which for Prince Philip amounted to 360 thousand pounds per year, regularly paid by the State even after 2017, the year in which the sovereign’s consort retired from public life.
Cost-Saving Measures from Charles III
A revenue, his, not transferable to the daughter-in-law automatically: to give her those funds it would have been necessary to issue a specific law, of which however nobody felt the need. The Sovereign Grant should also be able to cover any extra expenses of the current sovereigns, especially those related to travel, at home and abroad. Elizabeth II, for reasons of age, moved very little, Charles and Camilla, on the other hand, are much more dynamic at the moment. “These changes may influence spending profiles, but they would fall within the funding available in the grant”, it reads in the annual report of the NAO (the National Audit Office, an independent body from Parliament that monitors and makes public, among other things, the expenses of the Crown, for maximum transparency). A cost-saving choice, which suits the imprint that Charles III wants to give to his reign. The new regime provides lower salaries for family members and spending under control. Even the heating of Buckingham Palace’s pool has been lowered: Elizabeth’s son will certainly not go down in history as a spendthrift king. And all the senior royals have already adapted.
