King Charles will receive a larger payout from the Crown Estates due to rocketing profits from its windfarm after energy prices skyrocketed, though a larger share will also go to the Treasury.
The royal trustees, made up of the prime minister Rishi Sunak, chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the keeper of the privy purse Sir Michael Stevens, confirmed yesterday that the sovereign grant paid to the King will be cut to 12% of the Crown Estates' net profits next year from 25%.
However, due to the surge in payments to its windfarms the Crown Estates annual profits soared to £443mln from £313mln the year before, the King is expected to see his payment jump to almost £125mln in 2025/26 and £126mln in 26/27.
Payments to the monarch are to be held at the same level as last year, £86.3mln, for the next two years.
Earlier this year, the King promised that profits from the estates’ wind farms would be diverted to the public purse, with Stevens writing to the PM and chancellor to "share the King's wish that this windfall is directed for the wider public good, rather than to the Sovereign Grant, through an appropriate reduction in the proportion of Crown Estate surplus".
According to the news from the Treasury, the Royal Household’s budget “will be £24mln lower next year and £130mln lower in both 2025 and 2026, than if the rate remained at 25%”.
Part of the sovereign grant for 2024/25 of £86.3mln will go towards the reservicing of Buckingham Palace.
Hunt said: “For almost 300 years, kings and queens have surrendered the profits from the Crown Estate to the British people, and in return the government has provided a fraction of that to properly support the King in undertaking his official duties.
“The new sovereign grant rate reflects the unexpected significant increase in the Crown Estate’s net profits from offshore wind developments, while providing enough funding for official business as well as essential property maintenance.”
The Treasury said the new 12% rate will deliver the funding for the 10-year reservicing of Buckingham Palace, due to complete in 2027, as well as funding for wider property maintenance and to support the official duties of The Head of State.