The Royal Family Gets £86M A Year From The British People. Are They Worth It? | True Cost

there's no doubt the British royal family is rich and if you were to add up all of the land properties and castles linked to the monarchy you'd end up with assets of around 26 billion pounds not to mention the Faberge eggs the crown jewels drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and one of the most valuable stamp collections in the world to some the Windsors are an out of date Money Pit that should be consigned to the history books it is a grubby and secretive and corrupt institution while to others they are The Very Best

of British combining history with majesty and bringing in billions to the country through tourism and business Harry and Megan's exit from the family known as The Firm has undoubtedly done damage to the Royal brand so how much does the Royal Family cost and are they worth it the answer comes down to whether or not you think the Royals cost more than they give back this is an imprecise science so bear with me it might surprise you that on top of all their wealth the royal family receives an income from the UK government over 86 million

pounds a year or 106 million dollars and if you are a senior member of the royal family you get to live in places like this Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms and the balcony up there is where you may have seen the royal family gathering for special occasions live weddings birthdays and Jubilee celebrations it's not for sale but the palace is believed to be worth as much as 4 billion pounds but here's the thing Charles couldn't sell it even if he wanted to like most royal properties it is independently managed meaning that while it may belong

to the reigning king or queen any money it generates through tourism goes to the state the Monarch's largest portfolio of land and property is called the crown estate and it includes all of this London's iconic Regent Street also the entire seabed around the UK as far as 12 nautical miles from land that means these valuable wind farms too the estate even owns shopping malls up and down the country that are home to Brands like McDonald's and Victoria's Secret in 2021 the crown estate businesses made a profit of 312.7 million pounds and again all of this

is paid to the government not to the Royals this Arrangement dates back to 1760 when King George III struck a deal with parliament in which he would give up the earnings from his Estates in return for an annual income that payment is now known as The Sovereign Grant that's the 86 million pounds we mentioned before it covers things like the cost of maintaining the Palaces paying the wages for over a thousand staff and Royal travel in 2022 when William and Kate toured the Caribbean the flights alone cost 226 000 pounds but the Royals do have

considerable private wealth too for example the king owns a large amount of land and property that stretches right across the country called the duchy of Lancaster and William the Prince of Wales gets money directly from another portfolio the duchy of Cornwall both Charles and William get to keep the profits together they provide a private income of over 40 million pounds a year Charles inherited Sandringham house and Balmoral Castle in Scotland when his mother died he is also now the owner of many of the nation's swans part of a tradition dating back to Medieval Times but

here's that question again are they worth it foreign well there are more costs beyond that annual Sovereign Grant for a start there's the undisclosed amount spent by the government on security for every event the Royals attend and every parade in all it's estimated that the royal family could be costing the British people anywhere between 300 and 500 million pounds a year but then if you start adding up the revenue from the crown estate and a string of other economic benefits linked to the monarchy then they start to look like quite good value for money um

my name is David hake I'm the CEO of brand Finance brand Finance have tried to put a number on the benefits that the Royals bring to the UK I wanted to check one factor there's lots of evidence that the monarchy does create this wealth something in the order of 800 million pounds a year is generated every year incrementally to UK tourism because people specifically come here because they want to see royal events it definitely stimulates air traffic Hotel usage restaurants and all that kind of thing brand Finance also account for the free advertising Britain gets

around the world every time there's a big Royal event like a wedding or a new baby they also argue that the hundreds of businesses that are endorsed by the Royal household and can use a royal coat of arms reap the benefits in terms of extra sales oh and don't forget the crown and the bigger the brand the bigger the value our estimation is that the monarchy generates about 2 billion of uplift based on all these various different slivers that we have identified take away the estimated 500 million pounds in costs and according to Brand finance

that would mean that the UK still gains around 1.5 billion pounds a year from its monarchy and if you talked to Graeme Smith who runs the Republic who's great cheerful chap he's always trying to knock down our economic argument so we did speak to Graeme Smith CEO of Republic the campaign to abolish the monarchy in Britain for a lot of people the monarchy was the queen and the queen was the monarchy and without her on the phone a lot of people just aren't that interested opinion polls show support for the monarchy as an institution has

dipped considerably over the last year it's not just the change of Monarch Smith believes recent scandals have devalued brand Windsor the prince Andrew Scandal has done a lot of damage the Fiasco around the exit of uh Harry and Megan has done a lot of damage in the accusations have come out from that Harry remains a prince but since moving to California he and Megan have given up the income they received from the royal family turning instead to lucrative book and TV deals Republic argue that without a royal family the tourists would still come and that

an elected head of state would be far more democratic Charles wants his coronation to be less lavish than his mother's but it is still likely to cost the government tens of millions of pounds at a time when people are struggling to put food on the table at a time when people are being denied cost of living pay Rises and I think there's going to be a lot of resentment and anger Republic will be out on the streets protesting at the coronation but many will be in London to celebrate while many millions around the world will

watch the ceremony on TV but money aside many feel that having one single family that passes on wealth and privilege to the next generation without any kind of mandate is just wrong others like the sense of stability the Royals represent especially at a time of political and economic instability and it won't be easy to break with tradition Westminster Abbey has been the setting for every royal coronation since 1066. so can the royal family survive most people would say the notion of a hereditary ruling family is ridiculous the monarchy is a very resilient organization despite the

short-term damage by Andrew and Harry I think it will sail through [Music] people are inherently conservative and inherently they don't want to change everything [Music] foreign [Music]