Converting a huge property into a Royal residence for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has already cost taxpayers £2.4m.
Frogmore Cottage is being transformed from five separate flats into a family home
Buckingham Palace officials say further costs are expected in the next year as extensive work on the outside of the building continues, The Mirror reports .
The costs are funded from the public purse through the Sovereign Grant, which totalled £82.2million last year – equivalent to £1.24 for every person in the UK.
That was nearly double the previous year’s cost of 69p for every man, woman and child, which was up from 65p the year before.
The huge increase is due to the massive £369million 10-year renovation of Buckingham Palace.
A total of £32.9million of taxpayer funds for the Palace renovation was allocated last year – the equivalent of 50p per person.
But the cost of creating a new home for Prince Harry, 34, wife Meghan, 37, and month-old son Archie has added up to 81 times the average UK salary.
It does not include furnishings chosen by the couple before they moved in at the end of April.
Also not included is the cost of extensive plans, also funded from the Sovereign Grant, which were already completed before they decided last September that they would make the house in Windsor their home.
A royal source said the major work on Frogmore Cottage included replacing defective wooden ceiling beams and floor joists, fitting £50,000 of soundproof windows and updating outdated and inefficient heating systems.
Palace officials said the home needed substantial new electrical rewiring, including its own electrical sub-station, and new gas and water mains.
Further renovations to the exterior walls, including painting the building, could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
However, under Palace rules the royals do not have to declare any expenses spent on property that come in under £350,000.
It comes as the cost of Harry and Meghan’s star-studded wedding at Windsor Castle last year continues to be a mystery as Prince Charles’s household Clarence House has refused to give a breakdown.
Royal sources have suggested Charles’s “non-official expenditure” increase of £155,000 – up 5.2% to £3.16 million – could have included spending on the lavish occasion.
A Palace source said: “Harry and Meghan’s wedding was deemed a private affair and paid for by Prince Charles as such.”
