Queen Elizabeth II gets 5 million pounds pay hike

www.mangaloretoday.com

London, Apr 3, 2013: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has been given a hefty pay hike of 5 million pounds for the current financial year to carry out her official duties. The 86-year-old Queen received 31 million pounds last year, but that will be increased to 36.1 million pounds in 2013-2014 financial year.

Under the new arrangement, the Queen receives a grant equal to 15 per cent of the profits from the Crown Estate, calculated two years in arrears. The Crown Estate earned 240.2 million pounds in profits in 2011-2012 financial year, and this year’s 36.1 million pound grant is in fact 15 per cent of that figure.

The Crown Estate is the property of the British monarch, passed to him/her because he/she wears the crown. According to the Crown Estate website, the properties are worth some 8 billion pounds across Britain.

The Queen justifies the earning of the massive sum by providing a long list of annual expenditures including the maintenance of the royal palaces and royals’ foreign trips. Last year, almost 10 million pounds of the grant went to the salary of the Queen’s staff including footmen and chefs.

Buckingham Palace has declined to explain precisely how the Queen would spend the extra cash but it is likely to be targeted on a backlog of repairs to the Palace and Windsor Castle and the first pay rise in four years for most of her 300 staff.

Today a poll found strong support for the Queen but a desire for the monarch, who will be 87 this month, to cut down her workload. Last month she was forced to cancel a series of engagements after suffering gastroenteritis.

A poll by Hello! magazine found 69 per cent of 2,000 respondents wanted her to cut back, with 80 per cent backing the idea of Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, carrying out more royal engagements.

William, 30, is under pressure to abandon his military career to offer more support to his ageing grandparents. The poll also found 62 per cent liked the Duchess of Cambridge teaming up with the Queen on engagements.

The Sovereign Grant is based on — but not drawn from — the profits of the Crown Estate, the property quango that owns vast areas of Regent Street and the 12 miles of seabed around the UK coast.

In 1760, George III became the first monarch to surrender the revenues of the Crown Estate to the Government in return for an annual Civil List payment from Parliament.