Sovereign Grant 2025: how UK royals are funded
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is set to rely on King Charles III for a home and private support after losing the use of his “prince” style and being told to leave Royal Lodge. On 30 October 2025, Buckingham Palace said he will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and will move into private accommodation. UK reporting points to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk; Sandringham is a privately owned royal estate of around 20,000 acres (about 8,100 hectares). For many of us, this news triggers a bigger question: who pays for royal homes and duties in 2025?
Start with the rule of thumb: public money for official work flows through the Sovereign Grant. For the financial year 2025–26 the grant is £132.1m, the first cash increase since 2021–22. In 2024–25 it was £86.3m for a fourth year, split between the core grant and a separate sum for Buckingham Palace works.
Why the jump? The grant is calculated as 12% of the Crown Estate’s net revenue profit from two years earlier. The percentage was reduced from 25% to 12% in 2023 after offshore wind income surged, but profits were still so high in 2023–24 (about £1.1bn) that the 2025–26 grant rose sharply.
What is the Crown Estate? It is a public property business held by the monarch “in right of the Crown”, run independently; its profits go to the Treasury, not the King personally. In 2023–24 it valued its portfolio at about £15.5bn, spanning central London assets such as Regent Street and most of the UK seabed used for offshore wind.
Where does the Sovereign Grant go? Largely to staff, the upkeep of occupied royal palaces, travel for official engagements and hosting events. In 2024–25, the Royal Household reported £21.5m in extra income from visitors, more than 1,900 engagements by working royals and 93,000 guests at 828 palace events.
How Buckingham Palace’s renovation fits in: a ten‑year, £369m “reservicing” to deal with ageing electrics, plumbing and fire risk. A temporary uplift agreed in 2017 funded the project; the rate was later reduced to 12% from 2024–25. The Trustees and the Palace have said the grant should fall once the project concludes.
There is a built‑in floor. Under the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, the grant cannot drop below last year’s cash figure even if Crown Estate profits fall; the government makes up the difference. The Royal Trustees’ 2025–26 calculation sets this out step by step.
Just as important is what the grant does not cover. Security for the Royal Family is arranged through policing budgets; for safety reasons the overall bill is not published. Courts have upheld this secrecy, and government guidance confirms no breakdown will be released.
Some major state occasions also sit outside the grant. The late Queen’s funeral in 2022 cost government about £162m. The King’s Coronation in 2023 cost £72m, including £21.7m for policing. These figures reflect one‑off state costs, not the annual grant.
Private income is separate from public funding. The Duchy of Lancaster (the King’s private estate) reported £678.7m in net assets and an adjusted net surplus of £24.4m in 2024–25, which goes to the Privy Purse. Since 1993 the monarch has voluntarily paid income tax on private and Duchy income in line with a published Memorandum of Understanding.
The Prince of Wales is financed by the Duchy of Cornwall. For the year to 31 March 2025, the Duchy reported a distributable surplus of £22.9m to support the Wales family’s official, charitable and private work. The estate is a large landholding (over 50,000 hectares) concentrated in south‑west England.
Finally, remember the debate. Campaign group Republic argues that once you add security, local authority costs and “lost” revenues, the monarchy’s total annual cost is roughly £510m; official sources put the 2025–26 grant at £132.1m and detail only what it covers. Your media‑literacy tip: when you read royal money stories, check which costs are included, note the two‑year lag from Crown Estate profits, and separate the Crown Estate (public) from the Duchies (private).