Queen will get £6m pay rise from public funds after posting big Crown Estate profits

The Queen will receive an 8% increase in her income from public funds after the Crown Estate posted a £24m rise in profits.

The Sovereign Grant, which pays for royal household salaries, official travel and palace upkeep, is to be £82.2m in 2018/19, up more than £6m.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to confirm the figure during his autumn Budget.

The steep raise is due to record-breaking Crown Estate profits and an overhaul of how the monarch's handout is calculated in order to fund decade-long Buckingham Palace repairs, which will cost £369m.

The taxpayer-funded bill for the royals' expenses has been set at 15% of Crown Estate profit since 2012, two years in arrears. In order to help pay for the work at the palace, the percentage of the Crown Estate profits paid to the Queen will increase from 15% to 25% between 2017 and 2027.

The main source of the Queen's public income comes from the Sovereign Grant, which is a fixed percentage of the profits made by the Crown Estate.

The news comes as Clarence House released accounts revealing the Queen's official net expenditure increased by £2m, to almost £42m last year. The Queen and the Royal Family's official travel cost the taxpayer £4.5m during 2016/17, up £500,000.

The accounts also show the Prince of Wales' annual income from his hereditary estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, increased by 1.2% - to £20.7m.

BBC reports that Sir Alan Reid – Keeper of the Privy Purse – claimed that the Queen represented "value for money".

He explained: "When you look at these accounts, the bottom line is the Sovereign Grant last year equated to 65p per person, per annum, in the United Kingdom. That's the price of a first class stamp.

"Consider that against what the Queen does and represents for this country, I believe it represents excellent value for money", he added.

Republic – which campaigns for an elected head of state – came up with a different figure of annual costs published in its own report on royal expenses. Once security and other costs were including, they estimated that the annual bill for the monarchy was closer to £345m.

The Royal Family spent a total of £56.8m in the 12 months to March, including £41.9m compared with just two years earlier.