Royal palaces 'crumbling after years of low funding'

The royal palaces have a "critical backlog" of work waiting to be done, Buckingham Palace officials have warned.

The Royal Household fears the historic buildings may not be safe in the future if the Government does not provide extra money for their maintenance.

Work needed at Buckingham Palace was highlighted as royal accounts, published yesterday, showed the monarchy cost the taxpayer 62p per person during the financial year to 31 March. The total cost of keeping the Royal Family fell by 0.3 per cent to £37.3m compared with the previous financial year.

The drop in expenditure was mainly due to a reduction in the refurbishment costs at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, highlighted the issue of repairs. He said: "Since the allocation of the property grant-in-aid was fixed by the Government in 1991, it has effectively been reduced by 69 per cent in real terms.

"Now there is a critical backlog in maintenance projects and if our historic buildings are to remain safe it is essential that the grant is increased by £1m per year." In 2006-07, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided £14.5m of grant-in-aid for the Royal Household's property services - maintenance costs are included in this amount.

A senior aide described how work was being carried out on Buckingham Palace's crumbling stonework, sections of which have been breaking off, although it was stressed the problem was not a danger to the public.

The accounts also showed the Royal Household is following the "leadership" of the Prince of Wales and has started to calculate its carbon footprint and ways to reduce it.

Charles's own financial figures were released this week, showing that he is carbon neutral and has cut his CO2 emissions by 9 per cent over the past year.

Sir Alan said: "Success has been achieved in reducing carbon emissions on gas and electricity by 1,000 tonnes, or 12 per cent during the year, through lower energy consumption and the introduction of a new combined heat and power plant at Windsor Castle."

The senior aide confirmed the widely-held belief that the Queen does switch off lights if she finds them on and no one around.

The cost of royal travel rose by £100,000 compared with the previous financial year, to £5.5m.

Graham Smith, campaign manager of Republic, an organisation that wants to abolish the monarchy, claimed the real cost of the monarchy was more than £150m a year. This figure included the costs borne by local authorities and the police for royal visits.

Travel costs

The most expensive official overseas trip was a chartered flight made by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to the Gulf and Bosnia in February and March, which cost £345,710. The royal accounts showed that the couple's scheduled flight to the US in January cost £59,045. On the trip, Prince Charles collected a Global Environmental Citizen prize from Al Gore, a previous winner. Campaigners accused him of "green hypocrisy" for the 7,000-mile round trip.