Profits for the Royal Family are set to skyrocket following the sale of land from the Crown Estate in an auction to energy companies hoping to build wind farms.
For the first time in ten years, the Royal Family has decided to auction off some of its extensive landholdings.
The land in question is mostly offshore in the form of sea bed licenses and is to be sold to energy companies to produce windfarms.
Queen Elizabeth owns an area of seabed that stretches 12 miles out to sea from her Kingdom, and part of it has now been snapped up by British energy company BP and the German EnBW.
The sale is thought to pave the way for six new wind farms to be built off the British coast, and it’s hoped that they will generate clean electricity for more than 7 million homes.
Sale of Crown Estate land worth $1 billion
And it’s set to land Queen Elizabeth and her family over a billion dollars (£879m) a year for a whopping 10 years.
And the treasury.
Yes, unfortunately, for the Queen, she will have to share the profits with the British taxpayers as a significant portion will be headed to the UK Treasury vaults.
Under the current rules, the British Crown hands over all the money it generates to the UK government treasury, who then hand 25 percent back to the Family in what’s known as the sovereign grant.
It should also be noted that the money received back is not the personal wealth of the Royal Family, but rather, the sovereign grant is meant for the upkeep and maintenance of all the Family’s possessions.
Buckingham Palace needs renovation
For example, the grant was increased in 2017 from 15 to 25 percent to allow for the extensive renovation and repairs required at Buckingham Palace.
However, despite the Treasury reduction, this land deal will still net the Family a very handsome sum, causing their profits to double. The Queen’s share should come in at about $303 million (£220m) a year for ten years.
This announcement comes just a couple of days after a scandal emerged involving the Queen’s finances. Elizabeth II and her advisers are accused of blocking the passage of a law in the 1970s that would have revealed the extent of her personal wealth.
On a happier note for Queen Elizabeth, she celebrated an incredible anniversary last weekend when she passed 69 years on the throne. She succeeded her father, King George VI when he died in 1952.