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LED lighting is installed on the Grand Staircase of Buckingham Palace, one of various projects undertaken to maintain the Royal residences
© Buckingham Palace Press Office

PROPERTY SERVICES GRANT-IN-AID

A separate grant is voted by Parliament each year to cover the cost of the upkeep of the Royal residences for official and public use.

The Occupied Royal Palaces in England are held by The Queen as Sovereign, and they are used to fulfil the role and functions of Head of State.

Approximately 1,000 people work at the Occupied Royal Palaces. The Queen invites approximately 70,000 guests annually to the Palaces and there are approximately 1.5 million paying visitors.

The Occupied Royal Palaces in England are Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace and Clarence House, Marlborough House Mews, the residential and office areas of Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle and buildings in the Home and Great Parks at Windsor, and Hampton Court Mews and Paddocks.

In addition, there are The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, some 267 properties available for residential use on a rental basis, mainly by staff and pensioners, and 14 properties used as communal residential accommodation for staff.

Parliament, through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, provides a Property Maintenance Grant-in-aid annually to the Royal Household.

The money is used to meet the cost of maintenance, and of certain utilities and related services. These expenses are met by the Government in return for the surrender by the Sovereign of the hereditary revenues (the net surplus from the Crown Estate).

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has overall responsibility for the maintenance of, and provision of services to, the English Occupied Royal Palaces, but since 1991 the Property Section of the Royal Household has had day-to-day management and operating responsibility.

The Household’s aims are to conserve the architectural and historical integrity of the buildings, while at the same time ensuring that the Palaces can be used effectively and efficiently as living and working buildings, while achieving best value for money.

The Property Grant-in-Aid meets the costs of property maintenance, utilities, telephones and related services of the Occupied Royal Palaces. Its core funding will remain frozen at £15 million until 2008-09.

Savings in energy costs have been possible in recent years through the use of energy-saving devices such as a Combined Heat and Power Unit at Buckingham Palace.

The Royal Household annually submits a rolling five-year plan to the Department for its approval, as well as detailed quarterly reports and a detailed budget at the start of each financial year.

In addition to internal audits, the income and expenditure account and balance sheet are audited by KPMG LLP, the Grant-in-aid’s external auditors.

An annual report is published and can be downloaded from this page.

The Grant-in-aid voted by Parliament for 1990-91 (before the Royal Household assumed responsibility) was £25.7 million; expenditure was reduced to £14.3 million in 2005-06.

One of the most significant projects of recent times was the Windsor Castle fire restoration project. This was completed on 20 November 1997 at a total cost of £36.6 million, well under the £40 million budget. Some 71% of the cost came from the net surplus from the annual Summer Opening of the Buckingham Palace State Apartments and from the entry charges to the Precincts of Windsor Castle.

Full details relating to the summer opening of the Buckingham Palace State Apartments and income from visitors to the Windsor Castle Precincts are given in the published annual report of the Royal Collection Trust.

Royal Collection Enterprises is the trading subsidiary of the Royal Collection Trust. It is responsible for the management and financial administration of access by the public to Windsor Castle and Frogmore House, to Buckingham Palace including the Royal Mews and The Queen’s Gallery, and to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

It is also responsible for promoting access to the Royal Collection through the development of retail merchandise, the sale of photographic rights and publishing.

The principal aim of the company is to generate income for the Royal Collection Trust to fund the presentation, maintenance and conservation of the Royal Collection.

The schemes for the recently redeveloped Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace and the new Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse are being paid for from this income. This cost will absorb the majority of the Trust’s resources for some time to come.

The costs of maintaining the Palace of Holyroodhouse are met directly by Scottish Office. The Palace is administered by Historic Scotland.

Costs of the Historic Royal Palaces or Unoccupied Palaces are not the responsibility of the Royal Household. The Historic Royal Palaces Trust looks after the Unoccupied Palaces, which include the Tower of London, Hampton Court and the State Apartments at Kensington Palace.

The Unoccupied Palaces receive no Government funding. The buildings are maintained out of visitor admissions and related sources of income.

 
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT
Year to 31 March 2006 2005
£m £m
Amount of Grant-in-aid voted by Parliament 15.1 15.2
Advance drawn against 2004-05 Grant-in-aid              (0.7)
Grant-in-aid drawn down 15.1 14.5

Property Maintenance
Projects and general maintenance 8.7 9.3
Less: visitor contribution (1.4) (1.1)
Supervision   1.5   1.3
8.8 9.5
Utilities 2.1 2.0
Fire, health and safety services 1.2 1.1
Non-domestic rates 0.8 (0.2)
Court Post Office 0.7 0.7
Gardens 0.6 0.6
Furniture and equipment 0.5 0.5
Central administration 0.4 0.4
Rent and other recoveries   (0.8)   (0.7)
Total net expenditure 14.3 13.9
Net funding from fixed assets and working capital (0.8) (0.6)

Total net expenditure in 2005-06 includes approximately £1.7 million in respect of VAT (£1.6 million in 2004-05).

ANALYSIS BY PALACE: TOTAL COSTS
Year to 31 March 2006 2005
£m £m
Buckingham Palace 5.9 5.2
Buckingham Palace Mews and Gardens 1.5 1.4
St. James’s Palace 1.5 2.2
Clarence House and Marlborough House Mews 0.3 0.6
Kensington Palace (0.1) (0.1)
Hampton Court Mews and Paddocks 0.3 0.3
Windsor Castle 3.8 3.0
Windsor Castle Royal Mews 0.5 0.4
Windsor Home and Great Parks 1.0 1.0
Central costs    1.0    1.0
 15.7  15.0
Visitor contribution (1.4)  (1.1)
 14.3   13.9

Download the Property Services Grant-in-Aid report 2005-06 (1.95MB)