THE QUEEN was handed a boost in yesterday’s government Spending Review when it emerged that Her Majesty will soon be paid extra cash out of the rents of tens of thousands of ordinary Londoners.
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“The Royal Household will receive a new sovereign support grant linked to a portion of the revenue of the Crown Estate,” said Chancellor George Osborne in his all-in-it-together cuts speech.
The government-controlled Crown Estate owns some £6 billion worth of British property, most of it in London and much of that London property is made up of residential areas from Kensington and Millbank to the Lee Green and Victoria Park housing estates.
In other words, the rent from people in Lee Green, south east London, will go towards the upkeep of the Queen’s many palaces. On top of that, the Queen will have a direct financial interest in high London property prices and high rents.
“Our Government must stop behaving as if we owe the Windsors a living,” Graham Smith, spokesperson for the campaigning group Republic, told The Independent .
Regent Street is another jewel in the Crown Estate’s, er, crown, so it will also be the case that every time anyone shops on Regent Street, a part of the bill will head straight into Her Majesty’s piggy bank.
In total, Crown Estate revenue was over £200M last year.
Osborne’s plan is to use Crown estate cash to fund the upkeep of the monarchy, instead of paying the Queen through the current Civil List system.
Despite its name the Crown Estate is not owned by the royal family, but it once was. The Queen’s ancestor, George III, handed the Estate’s land to Parliament 250 years ago instead of paying his massive debts.
