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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Russell Myers & Alahna Kindred

5 huge royal bills YOU paid - Charles' £15k helicopter trip and £100k for 3 train rides

Taxpayers' spending on the Royal Family topped £100million for the first time, as we forked out £102.4m for them.

The UK continues to struggle with the cost of living crisis while spending on royals rose by £15million, or 17 per cent.

The Sovereign Grant Report shows that last year, as in-person royal visits resumed following the pandemic, their travel costs rocketed from £1.3m to £4.5m.

It comes as the Royal Family are said to be "extremely conscious" of how the cost of living crisis is impacting Britons where families are struggling to heat their homes and feed their kids.

Campaign group Republic lambasted the figures, with chief executive Graham Smith saying: "As always, while the rest of us face a cost-of-living crisis and continued squeezes on public services, the royals walk off with hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money."

A royal source said Charles was taking a very close interest in how inflation and the cost-of-living problems were impacting people (AFP via Getty Images)

He added: "We need to put the monarchy on a proper budgetary footing, just like any other public body. We need to slash that budget down to below £10m, and only fund what's required for the functions of the head of state."

A royal source said Prince Charles was taking a very close interest in how inflation and the cost-of-living problems were impacting people, particularly the Duchy of Cornwall's tenants, and their welfare.

Charles has spent time with farmers "sitting around the farmhouse table" discussing the challenges while visiting Duchy districts to work out ways to help them, the source said.

The source added: "He wants to hear from them, what is their lived experience, so we can see what we can do to try to help them, support them along the way because to roll the question into a wider point about the living crisis, the family are extremely conscious of this - the Prince of Wales is paying very close attention to this indeed."

Here are some of the big bombshells of the Sovereign Grant Report.

Buckingham Palace renovation

A lot of the money spent was for the renovations to Buckingham Palace (UK Press via Getty Images)

Part of the reason why this year's costs rose was the multi-million-pound renovation of Buckingham Palace helped to drive up the bill for the royal family.

Delivering the Sovereign Grant Report, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Michael Stevens, said: “There was a significant increase in work against a hard deadline to enable Buckingham Palace to be at the centre of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We were pleased to deliver against our plans."

Queen's royal train

The Queen will not give up using the royal train despite just three outings for her and Prince Charles costing £100,000.

Her Majesty used the royal train last July on a return journey from Windsor to Manchester to celebrate 60 years of Coronation Street and the 600th Anniversary of Manchester Cathedral, costing a staggering £42,452.

Prince Charles used the train twice, with a journey over several days between Stonehaven, Newcastle and Durham and back to Windsor coming in at a whopping £42,450.

Kate and William's Caribbean tour

Prince William and Kate Middleton during their royal tour in Jamaica (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's trip to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas cost about £226,000.

The couple faced heavy criticism during the tour in March, with critics labelling it a “throwback to Britain’s colonial past”.

The royal pair raised eyebrows for travelling in an open-top Land Rover driven by a Jamaican soldier during a military parade, with some people suggesting it “looked like a scene from The Crown”.

Charles' flights

Prince Charles arrives in Barbados (Daily Mirror/Ian Vogler)

Prince Charles still flies between his royal residences at an average cost of £15,000 a time.

In December, we reported how a plane flew 125 miles to pick him up.

It was flown to RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, nearer Sandringham, ahead of Charles’ trip for a ceremony removing the Queen as head of state.

It saved him just two hours of driving time.

Harry and Meghan's independence

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are considered financially independent (REUTERS)

Harry and Meghan are now paying for themselves after they ditched their royal roles seeking “financial independence”.

After they shed their life as working royals in 2020 they signed £100m worth of deals with streaming giants Netflix and Spotify.

A source close to Prince Charles said the Duke and Duchess “should be congratulated on achieving their goal” is raking in millions from the private sector - despite using their newfound roles to routinely slam the royal family on global television interviews.

Charles’s bill for his sons and their families no longer lists the Sussexes in the accounts.

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