The Queen is getting an 8% pay rise of £6m to help fix up her house

The Queen is getting an 8% pay rise to help her fix up her home of Buckingham Palace.

Her Sovereign Grant, the amount she receives from British taxpayers, will increase by more than £6 million in 2018/2019 to £82.2 million.

It pays for the salaries of her household, the upkeep of her palaces and her official travel.

The pay rise for the Queen is the result of large increase in the income of the Crown Estate, whose profits fund her official work.

The Queen’s expenditure increased by £2 million to almost £42 million but the estate’s profits rose by 8%, or £24.7 million, to £328.8 million in 2016/17.

Under the Sovereign Grant funding formula, the Queen receives a percentage of the Crown Estate profits for her official expenditure, but from funds two years in arrears.

The Crown Estate portfolio, one of the largest in the UK, includes much of London’s West End.

In the 2018/19 financial year, when the grant is expected to be £82.2 million, that will make up 25% of the Crown Estate’s profits paid to the Treasury.

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In total, the Queen and the Royal Family’s official travel cost the taxpayer £4.5 million during 2016/17, up £500,000.

The rise in the Queen’s income will go towards the £370 million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace – it needs new electrical and plumbing systems installed.

To help pay for the works, the percentage of the Crown Estate profits paid to the Sovereign Grant will increase from 15% to 25% between 2017 to 2027.

Clarence House has also released its annual accounts, which showed the Prince of Wales’ annual income from his hereditary estate the Duchy of Cornwall has increased by 1.2% to £20.7 million.

Officials hope to be able to increase the summer opening of the palace by an extra 15 days when work is completed.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, insists the Queen represents ‘excellent value for money’.

He said: ‘When you look at these accounts the bottom line is the Sovereign Grant last year equated to 65 pence per person, per annum, in the United Kingdom – that’s the price of a first class stamp.

‘Consider that against what the Queen does and represents for this country. I believe it represents excellent value for money.’

The accounts reveal the most expensive trip made by the royals was a £154,000 visit by the Prince of Wales to Romania and, with the Duchess of Cornwall, Italy and Austria – their first trip in the official Voyager government jet used by David Cameron and dubbed ‘Cam Force One’.

The Duke of Edinburgh made a £18,690 trip on the royal train to attend a dinner in Plymouth last November, marking two important Royal Marines anniversaries, travelling from Taplow, Buckinghamshire, and returning to Windsor.

The royal accounts revealed that £1.2 million was spent last year replacing the doors of Windsor Castle’s orangery.

The Queen celebrated her 90th birthday last year and carried out 162 engagements in 2016/17. Prince Philip
will retire from public duties after the summer, but he racked up 196 engagements in the same period.

Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, published its own report on royal expenses and claimed, when security and other costs are included, the annual bill for the monarchy is nearer £345 million.

Graham Smith, the organisation’s chief executive, said: ‘This massive bill for the taxpayer is supporting privileged lifestyles: helicopter flights around the country, palatial homes, round-the-clock security for minor royals who should pay their own way, and millions of pounds in cash handed to the family by the two duchies.’