The Refurbishment of Buckingham Palace Accelerated During COVID
When the royal household announced in 2016 that Buckingham Palace would be beginning a 10 year reservicing program costing the British taxpayer £369 million at a time when public spending was being squeezed in other areas, the project was not without its critics. However, one consolation for those monitoring the eye-watering cost of the ongoing work is that, unlike many other building projects, it does appear to still be on time and on budget.
Indeed, details revealed in this year’s annual Sovereign Grant report show that the royal household has been able to make significant headway with the renovations while the Palace was forced to close its doors to the public during the pandemic. “No large scale events were possible, virtual engagements and working from home became the norm,” the Queen’s Treasurer Sir Michael Stevens told reporters as he outlined the key elements of the report. “Despite this, a substantial programme of property projects and maintenance was carried out, and as planned, our reservicing project accelerated in terms of both spending and major works starting on site.”
Spending on the reservicing increased by £17.6 million on the previous year and work carried out included upgrading many of the main services such as installing new water tanks, a new energy center and standby power generation. A ramp at the front of the palace was also completed as part of improvements to step-free access, and works were brought forward on the Picture Gallery’s roof replacement while the Palace was empty.
“We are still on time with the project and we are still on budget and we still expect to deliver the project within a £369 million budget that was agreed with HM Treasury,” a senior Palace source said about the work. The project is now four years in and the accounts show that so far £130.7 million has been spent.
This year’s Sovereign Grant report looks significantly different to previous years due to the impact of COVID. The cost of royal travel—which is usually around £5 million per year—was reduced to £3.2 million. This included a £47,965 bill for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s trip on the royal train around Scotland, England, and Wales last December as well as a £58,993 trip by Prince Charles to Kuwait last October by charter plane to pay his respects following the death of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad.
The royal household has also seen a significant hit in the income generated to supplement the Sovereign Grant, largely through the public openings of Palaces, which fell to £9.4 million from £20.2 million the previous year. “As we said we would, we tightened our belts, we cut costs across all areas and managed to deliver savings to cover this anticipated reduction in supplementary income. These cost reductions did not involve job losses but did come from all areas including the pay and recruitment freeze we spoke about, general reductions in the areas of travel, housekeeping and IT and a reduction in some property backlog maintenance,” Sir Michael Stevens told reporters.
This year's report also accounts for the payments that Prince Harry and Meghan have made in relation to their former official royal residence Frogmore Cottage. As was revealed last year, they have paid back the £2.4 million spent refurbishing the property and have also paid money towards rent in order to maintain it as their private UK home. "In addition to commercial rent paid in the first five months of 2020-21, a lump sum of £2.4m was received from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in September 2020 to reimburse the Sovereign Grant for expenditure incurred on the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage," the report reads.
The annual Sovereign Grant report outlines how the royal household has spent the lump sum it receives from the UK’s public purse each year. This latest report covers the period from April 2020 to March 2021, during which time the royals received £85.9 million, £34.4 million of which is dedicated to the ongoing 10-year refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
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