A series of costs incurred by senior royals such as the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have continued to rise in recent years despite ordinary Brits forced to cut their spending

The Royal Family cost taxpayers £102.4million last year, a report reveals today.

As the nation struggled in the cost of living crisis, spending on the royals rose £15million – 17% – to top £100m for the first time.

Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “It’s not right.”

The multi-million-pound renovation of Buckingham Palace helped to drive up the bill for the royal family.

Spending on the project rose to £63.9million, up £14.4million on the previous year, as work intensified to prepare the palace for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

The Queen was in another of her official residences yesterday, receiving Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

The Sovereign Grant Report shows that last year, as in-person royal visits resumed following the pandemic, their travel costs rocketed from £1.3m to £4.5m.

Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “The Government should have a complete rethink of how taxpayers’ money is allocated to the Royal Family.

“We have no say in how the royals choose to use private jets or helicopters, which are all paid for out of the public purse, and while ordinary people are struggling it isn’t right.” The 10-year Buckingham Palace renovation project appears to be on target to cost £369million.

Delivering the Sovereign Grant Report, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Michael Stevens, said: “There was a significant increase in work against a hard deadline to enable Buckingham Palace to be at the centre of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We were pleased to deliver against our plans.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton during their royal tour in Jamaica ( Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

The report shows spending on the royals rose by almost £15million in 2021/22, up more than 17% on the previous year.

Sir Michael said: “The year was not without operational and financial challenges. Covid meant we had another year in which access to the Royal Palaces was restricted for The Royal Collection Trust, which again affected our ability to help self-finance our work on behalf of the nation.”

Costs incurred by senior royals continued to rise as their subjects tightened their belts.

Prince William and Kate’s ill-fated trip to the Caribbean, where the future king admitted he had not been alive to anti-monarchy sentiment in Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas, cost £226,000 in flights and accommodation.

Despite campaigning on environmental issues, Prince Charles still flies between his royal residences at an average cost of £15,000 a time.

The Queen’s royal train cost £100,000 for just three outings last year, but is now exclusively powered by “hydro treated vegetable oil”, royal sources revealed.

As a non-working royal, like Prince Harry and his wife Megan, Prince Andrew no longer qualifies for public funding and gets nothing from the Sovereign Grant. He is now thought to be exclusively funded privately by his mother, the Queen.

Caribbean tour

William and Kate’s controversial visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas cost roughly £226,000.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came in for heavy criticism during the tour in March, with critics labelling it a “throwback to Britain’s colonial past”.

The royal pair raised eyebrows for travelling in an open top Land Rover driven by a Jamaican soldier during a military parade, with some people suggesting it “looked like a scene from The Crown”.

In an unprecedented statement, William said after the Caribbean visit: “Tours are an opportunity to reflect. You learn so much.

“This tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future. In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon.”

Royal train

The Queen will not give up using the royal train despite just three outings for her and Prince Charles costing £100,000

The Queen will hold on to her favourite mode of transport, which she can travel and sleep on when on engagements – despite it being used so little each year.

Her Majesty used the royal train last July on a return journey from Windsor to Manchester to celebrate 60 years of Coronation Street and the 600th Anniversary of Manchester Cathedral, costing a staggering £42,452.

Prince Charles used the train twice, with a journey over several days between Stonehaven, Newcastle and Durham and back to Windsor coming in at a whopping £42,450.

A royal aide said: “The Queen has no plans to stop using the royal train which provides excellent value for money.”

Green fuel

Environmentalist Charles committed to using “green fuel” for plane journeys where he can, despite it costing the public purse far more than normal fuel A source close to the prince said the future king called him a “pioneer”and likened the situation to “buying a video recorder in the 1980s”.

The source added: “The prince is aware of the extra cost but the destructive cost to the environment during a climate emergency is far greater”.

Meghan & Harry

Harry and Meghan are now paying for themselves – the Prince of Wales no longer funds them after they ditched their royal roles seeking “financial independence”.

After they shed their life as working royals in 2020 they signed £100m worth of deals with streaming giants Netflix and Spotify.

During the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March last year, Harry said “my family literally cut me off financially” in “the first quarter of 2020”.

A source close to Prince Charles said the Duke and Duchess “should be congratulated on achieving their goal” in raking in millions from the private sector – despite using their new found roles to routinely slam the royal family on global television interviews.

Charles’s bill for his sons and their families no longer lists the Sussexes in the accounts.

Charity cash

Changes to the way the royal charities accept donations have been implemented after Prince Charles accepted £2.6million in cash from a former prime minister of Qatar.

The Prince of Wales will never again handle large sums in notes to be passed to his charities, a royal source has stated.

Charles faced criticism over being presented with one million euros stuffed in a briefcase while two other cash gifts of more than £1.6million were given in Fortnum & Mason carrier bags between 2011 and 2015.

A report claimed the heir to the throne personally accepted the donations for his charity The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, above .

A royal source said Charles acts on advice and such incidents have not happened in the past five years and will not happen again.

Bullying probe

Buckingham Palace has been accused of a whitewash after refusing to reveal the findings of an independent law firm instructed to investigate allegations that Meghan Markle bullied junior staff during her time as a royal.

The probe was launched in March last year after the Duchess of Sussex was accused of bullying at least two palace aides – occasionally reducing staffers to tears and “humiliating” another.

At the time, Buckingham Palace said it would “not tolerate bullying and harassment” and was “very concerned by the allegations” that the Duchess – who has denied the claims – forced out two personal assistants and undermined the confidence of a third.

A senior palace source cited the confidentiality of those who took part in the review as to why details were not released.

Source: www.mirror.co.uk