King Charles has “significantly increased” foreign engagements during his four-year tenure, it has been claimed, as a major increase to royal funding has been announced.
The House of Commons has given its backing to a substantial overhaul of funding, with the newly tabled Sovereign Grant Bill establishing a £99.9million package of annual support for the monarchy from 2027/28.
The figure represents a remarkable uplift from the £51.8million allocated in 2024-25 and the £72.1million set for 2025/26.
MPs approved a motion to revise the funding formula following a review conducted by the Royal Trustees.
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The Sovereign Grant underpins the King’s official duties and the broader operations of the Royal Household, covering staff costs, official travel and upkeep of the occupied royal palaces.
It is drawn from a share of the Crown Estate’s profits, with the remainder flowing to the Exchequer.
Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson attributed much of the increased expenditure to a marked shift in royal activity under the current sovereign.
He told the Commons that King Charles has “significantly increased” the number of engagements he undertakes in comparison to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s final years, who had scaled back her foreign engagements and was hosting fewer state visits.
“The King has increased the engagements that he is carrying out on our behalf as part of his public duties, and that has involved more expenditure in terms of staff costs,” Mr Tomlinson said.
The minister emphasised that this heightened programme of duties abroad in particular required proper resourcing to deliver its full benefits.
Buckingham Palace confirmed last week that King Charles and Queen Camilla will embark on an Autumn Tour spanning October 27 to November 4, visiting The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, and Guyana.
Merely days later, Antigua and Barbuda announced they had dropped their allegiance to the King and British monarchy.
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The bill for maintaining royal residences has also climbed sharply, Mr Tomlinson explained, with refurbishment costs rising from £18million in 2016-17 to an anticipated £33.6million next year.
He noted that years of restricted budgets during the pandemic had left the Royal Household grappling with significant property maintenance backlogs.
“The new level of the grant will ensure that the Royal Household can continue to deal with property maintenance backlogs following some years of constrained funding during the pandemic,” he explained.
The additional funding will enable upgrades to bolster cybersecurity defences and the installation of energy-efficient heating systems across royal properties – investments Mr Tomlinson described as essential for replacing outdated technology.
Despite the headline increase in core funding, the total Sovereign Grant will actually fall from its current level of £137.9million, owing to the near-completion of the decade-long Buckingham Palace reservicing programme that had temporarily inflated the figure.
The share of Crown Estate net profits directed towards the grant will rise to approximately 20.5 per cent, a notable jump from the previous 12 per cent.
Mr Tomlinson said the new settlement was shaped by “an assessment of the Royal Household’s expected costs and the Crown Estate’s expected revenues between 2027 and 2032.”
That bottom-up review examined the full breadth of the Household’s requirements, ensuring the monarchy is adequately resourced to fulfil its constitutional role and public duties in the years ahead.
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