King Charles is in line to get £80 million more of British taxpayers’ money.
The monarch, 74, crowned in May alongside his wife Queen Camilla, 75, will receive the cash over two years through a Crown Estate windfall – despite the UK government’s plans to slash estate profits given to the royals from 25 per cent to 12 per cent.
Charles’ £86.3 million annual funding from the government will remain flat for a fourth consecutive year next year, but is forecast to be boosted by just under £40 million in both 2025 and 2026.
He is going to benefit from a boom in offshore wind farms under a funding formula that pegs the Sovereign Grant to the equivalent of a percentage of the Crown Estate property empire’s profits.
The Estate, which owns rights to swathes of seabed, is expected to see its annual profits in England, Wales and Northern Ireland soar from £442.6 million in 2022 to ’23 to more than £1 billion in 2023 to ’24 and 2024 to ’25 thanks to fees paid by offshore wind farm companies.
So even under changes to the way the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant is calculated, the king is still set to get almost £40m extra a year in 2025 and 2026.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “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.”
The king asked in January for wind farm profits to go to the public good.
As the reigning monarch, he nominally owns the Crown Estate, whose assets include Regent Street and other parts of London’s West End.
In practice it is an independent property company created to make money for the government.
