It has been announced that His Majesty King Charles III will receive £99.9 million from the Sovereign Grant for 2027 to 2028 to support his official duties and the Royal Household, which includes staffing, travel in the UK and overseas and the maintenance of occupied royal palaces.
A focus for Charles and his team will be tackling the "property maintenance backlogs" that have amassed when budgets were tightened amid the pandemic six years ago.
Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson has said: "This recommendation was made based on an assessment of the Royal Household’s expected costs and the Crown Estate’s expected revenues between 2027 and 2032.
© PA Images via Getty Images"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.
"It will also allow the Royal Household to replace ageing systems to strengthen cybersecurity and to install energy-efficient heating systems."
The cost of refurbishing royal palaces was £18 million in 2016-2017, but will be £33.6 million next year, he said.
Buckingham Palace's overhaul nears completion
© Getty ImagesThis comes as Buckingham Palace will conclude its 10-year-long reservicing scheme to update the electrical cabling, plumbing and heating inside the historic building. "The most cost-effective way to replace these essential services, and to ensure that The Palace is fit for purpose for the next 50 years, is to undertake a phased programme of works over ten years," the official website reads.
Despite the programme costing £369 million, it has now been decided that the palace will not become King Charles and Queen Camilla's permanent home.
During the Sovereign Grant briefing in June, Keeper of the Privy Purse, James Chalmers, shared the monarch's intentions publicly.
© Getty Images"I can update you that after careful consideration, and to greatly increase opportunities for public access, the King and Queen have decided not to adopt Buckingham Palace as a personal residence and will instead continue to use Clarence House as their London home," he explained.
While the amount being received by the monarch for the 2027-28 period may seem like a lot, and is a significant increase from £51.8 million in 2024-25 and £72.1 million in 2025-26, it has been justified by the Treasury.
The revised amount is based on predicted tasks, and because the King is carrying out significantly more foreign engagements and state visits than Queen Elizabeth II did in her later years, more funding is required.
