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Queen's income safe from cuts for two years despite rising revenues

Formula for calculating Queen's income should safeguard her from the government's austerity plans, despite an 11 per cent rise in her income

Alexander Sehmer

Monday 22 June 2015 09:28 BST

Under the terms of the Sovereign Grant Act the Queen's income is next subject to review in April 2016 (Getty)

The Queen faces no cuts to the royal finances for the next two years, despite an 11 per cent rise in her income, according to The Telegraph.

The Queen's income has increased in recent years from £36.1 million to more than £40 million, according to The Telegraph, but the royal finances appear set to be untouched by the Conservatives' austerity plans.

The Queen receives a single Sovereign Grant of 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate. Rising property prices in the capital in recent years have meant that her income from this has been considerably boosted.

A large part of the Soverign Grant is used to pay for the upkeep of the royal residences (Getty)

Prime Minister David Cameron and George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, introduced the Sovereign Grant, which came into law in 2013.

Previously the Queen's expenses were paid via the Civil List.

Campaigners are now calling for a review of the funding formula, but under the terms of the Sovereign Grant Act 2011 the next scheduled review would not be until April 2016.

Even then cuts are by no means certain and are likely to be resisted by the Palace, which says it needs the money to carry out a backlog of repairs.

That backlog should become apparent on Tuesday when Buckingham Palace is due to publish its annual report on the royal finances.

What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

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1/8What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

Welfare payments will be slashed

One of the most controversial parts of the Conservative manifesto was to cut benefits for the working age poor by £12 bn over the next three years. But during the campaign they only said where £2 bn of these savings would come from. That leaves £10 bn still to find. Some experts think the only way they can close that gap is by means testing child benefit – with millions of families losing out

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

There will be tax cuts for those in work and those who die

The Tories will increase the threshold at which the 40p rate of tax becomes payable to £50,000 by 2020. They haven’t said so but it is also likely that at some point in the next five years they will abolish that 45p rate of tax altogether for the highest earners. They also want to increase the effective inheritance tax threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1m

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

There will be an in/out EU referendum in 2017

The next two years are going to be dominated by the prospect of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. First off David Cameron has the daunting task of negotiating a deal with other EU leaders an acceptable deal that he can sell to his party so he can go into the referendum campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote. This may be unachievable and it is possible that the Tories may end up arguing to leave. Opinion polls show Britain is divided on EU membership, one poll this year showed 51% said they would opt to leave compared to 49% who would vote to stay in

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

There will be more privatisation of the NHS

Having won the election the Tories now have a mandate to go further and faster reforming the NHS. In order to make cost savings there is likely to be greater private involvement in running services, while some smaller hospitals may lose services they currently provide like A&E and maternity units

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

There will be many more free schools – and traditional state schools will become a thing of the past

The Tories plans to create 500 new free schools and make 3,000 state schools become academies. They will also carry on reforming the Department of Education and remove more powers from local authorities over how schools are run

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

On shore wind farms will be a thing of the past and fracking will be the future

Government spending on renewable energy is under real threat now the Lib Dems are no longer in power with the Tories. Subsidies are likely to be slashed for off-shore wind farm and other green energy supplies. Meanwhile there will be generous tax break for fracking as ministers try and incentivise the industry to drill for onshore oil and gas

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

There maybe more free childcare – but not necessarily

In the campaign the Tories pledged to double the amount of free early education for three- and four-year-olds from 15 hours a week to 30. The extra hours would only be offered to working families where parents are employed for at least eight hours a week. However they have not said where the money will come from to fund the pledge

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What does five more years of the Tories mean for Britain?

Workers' rights could be reduced

The Tories want to slash business regulation, merge regulator and cut costs. The Lib Dems stopped them from reducing the employment rights of workers in power – but these are now under threat

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