Windfarm windfall set to spark debate about funding of UK monarchy

theguardian.com:

The royal family stands to benefit from a huge windfall from the boom in offshore energy, potentially sparking a debate about funding the monarchy.

The Treasury has confirmed that an official review of the sovereign grant, which stands at £86.3m a year, is ongoing and is expected to come into effect from April next year. Officials say they want to ensure the funding is at “appropriate” levels.

Public finance for the royal household is paid as a fixed proportion of profits of the crown estate, the organisation that manages the crown’s public lands, including coastal and marine assets. These profits are now expected to rise significantly because of the drive by energy companies to harness wind power.

A Whitehall source said: “The review will take account of significant extra revenues that the crown estate expects to receive from the next phase of offshore wind developments – forecast to be several hundred million pounds each year while these projects are in development.”

The crown estate owns virtually all of the seabed around the UK to a distance of 12 nautical miles. The value of its marine portfolio is now worth £5bn, driven largely by demand for seabed leases for windfarms.

As chancellor George Osborne announced a reform of public funding of the monarchy in 2011, replacing the civil list with the sovereign grant.

The first such grant in 2012-13 was £31m to pay staff costs, official travel and royal household expenses. But the core grant for these costs had increased to £51.8m by 2021-22, with an additional £34.5m for works at Buckingham Palace.

The monarchy benefits from what has been described as a “golden ratchet” clause under these arrangements, in which the amount of money can only be increased each year or stay at the