... and What Do You Do? by Norman Baker

Author:Norman Baker [Norman Baker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785905384
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2019-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

In 2007, Sir Alan Reid warned that tiles and bits of stonework were falling off the building, and said an extra £1 million was needed to fix the problem. By 2008, the Palace estimated that the backlog of repairs to the occupied, that is to say the publicly maintained, palaces would require between £32 and £55 million to be spent by 2015. This, note, was for all the palaces – not just Buckingham Palace – which, in 2010, was identified as needing £10 million. In his evidence in 2013, Sir Alan suggested that the new Sovereign Grant should allow, if the diversion of 15 per cent of the Crown Estates profit remained constant, ‘major inroads’ to be made into both the maintenance backlog and the interior furnishings.

In 2016, the then Prime Minister David Cameron and the Chancellor George Osborne were of the view that an extra allocation of £50 million would be enough to deal with the problem, but then they were replaced by Theresa May and Philip Hammond, who got taken for £359 million by the Palace who could not believe their luck. Now money is being spent on the building as if there is no tomorrow, with little concern about value for money. It will not be surprising if they come back for even more in due course.

So while the taxpayer signs off £359 million, the Palace continues to pocket all the lucrative stream of entrance fees to the building, to other royal palaces and to the Royal Collection. Admissions to Buckingham Palace alone brought in £10.35 million in 2017. Total admission income for the various buildings reached £181 million over the five years to 2017. To paraphrase Janet Daly, it is theirs when it is an income stream, it is ours when it needs to be repaired.

The refit of Buckingham Palace is an extreme example, but it is by no means a unique one. Indeed it seems that almost every time there is a change of royal in one of the public homes they occupy, there is an obligatory refurbishment. When Prince Charles moved into Clarence House after the death of the Queen Mother, over £3 million of taxpayers’ money was used to bring the interior up to a standard he deemed appropriate. His contribution towards the decoration costs was £78,000 including VAT. Despite receiving £643,000 a year from the state, the Queen Mother had paid no rent on the building.

A highly favourable rent arrangement was also in place for Prince Michael of Kent. The Michaels moved into an apartment in Kensington Palace in 1978 on a rent-free basis courtesy of the Queen, having pleaded poverty. ‘We live at home on yoghurt and cornflakes,’ Princess Michael said at the time. The following year, they bought an eight-bedroom country house in Gloucestershire for £300,000, valued at £5 million by 2000. That year, the House of Commons was assured that the Michaels, who were not undertaking any royal duties, were contributing £3,500 a year towards maintenance. Letting agents at the time estimated the commercial rental value could be as high as £500,000 a year.

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