NOT EVERYONE NOTICED IT AT FIRST… — One Detail in the Royal Family’s New Financial Report Is Becoming the Center of Attention
The royal accounts revealed the rises in costs.
The Royal Family’s net expenditure rose by nearly 40 per cent from last year, the latest figures have revealed.
The 2025/26 royal accounts show the official net expenditure by the monarchy at £117.2million.
From 2024-25, where the figure stood at £85.2million, it has seen a dramatic 37.5 per cent increase.
Included in the expenditure is a marked rise in property maintenance, costing £67.5million, up from £41.2million the previous year.
It was revealed yesterday that, despite £369million on property upgrades and essential maintenance at Buckingham Palace, the King and Queen will not move into the iconic residence, and no royals are likely to live there.
In 2025/26, the cost of official royal travel rose to £5.1million from £4.7million the previous year.
Of the royal travel, Prince William’s trip to Saudi Arabia in February was the most expensive of all, costing £130,106.
The Royal Family’s net expenditure rose by nearly 40 per cent from last year, the latest figures have revealed
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His trip narrowly surpassed the £126,946 spent on the King and Queen’s four-day state visit to Italy in April 2025.
The Prince of Wales also took up third spot, with his Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, costing £78,542.
Additionally, the royal wage bill for staff this year was £33.7million, a rise of £3.8million in 2024/25.
Meanwhile, the cost of housekeeping also grew by £300,000, to £3.5million.
The Prince of Wales’s first-ever trip to Saudi Arabia was the most expensive royal visit of the past 12 months
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The number of public engagements carried out by the King and Queen across the UK increased by 17 per cent, surpassing 700.
And the King’s income also rose; his private windfall hit £25.2million, increasing from £24.4million.
The monarchy will receive £99.9million in two years because of the £487million Crown Estate profits and under a new 20.5 per cent formula agreed with the Government, compared with £132million in 2025/26.
This decision, made by outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and James Chalmers, the King’s Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer, has faced significant criticism.
Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, declared that “royal finances are out of control and Parliament needs to act to slash the annual budget to below £10million.”
As for William, his annual private income from the Duchy of Cornwall estate decreased by £1.3million, to £21.6million.
The Prince of Wales had been charging the Ministry of Justice £1.5million per year to lease the land on which Dartmoor Prison sits up until now.
The prison has been closed for two years after concentrations of radon, a colourless and odourless radioactive gas produced by decaying uranium in rocks and soil, were found ten times above the legal threshold in certain areas of the prison during testing conducted in 2020 and 2023.
In response to the criticism, the prince has personally decided to direct the money to the local community surrounding the prison and the wider Dartmoor area, which has been affected by its closure.
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