UK cuts King’s funding — because he’s coining it from offshore wind

The U.K. government has more than halved the rate of public funding it gives King Charles III — because the monarch is making such big profits through offshore wind projects on the Crown Estate.

The Sovereign Grant — the yearly payment made by the government to the royal household — will be reduced to 12 percent of Crown Estate net profits in 2024/25, down from 25 percent.

The actual payment will remain flat at £86 million, but the change means Charles III and his household will receive nearly £300 million less over the next three years than they would if the rate had stayed the same.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the cut reflected “the unexpected significant increase in the Crown Estate’s net profits from offshore wind developments.”

“For almost 300 years, kings and queens have surrendered the profits from the Crown Estate to the British people, and in return the government has provided a fraction of that to properly support the king in undertaking his official duties,” Hunt added.

The profits made from electricity generators increased last year, as the cost of electricity rose on the back of higher gas prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In January, the Crown Estate announced six new offshore wind energy leases, with Buckingham Palace saying it wanted profits from the deals to go towards the “wider public good.”

The decision to cut the rate of the Sovereign Grant was taken by the royal trustees — Hunt, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Michael Stevens, the keeper of the privy purse, who is responsible for the royal household’s finances.

The Treasury said the change would reduce the value of the grant by £24 million in 2024/25 and by more than £130 million in both 2025 and 2026.

Part of the grant will be used to renovate Buckingham Palace itself, in works aimed at preventing “a serious risk of fire, flood and damage to the building,” the Treasury added.