THE MAJORITY of the UK opposes taxpayer money being spent on Buckingham Palace refurbishments.
A YouGov poll commissioned for The Times found that the majority of the UK believes that the £369 million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace should not come out of the public purse.
Of the 2500 people questioned, 56% said that the government should not contribute to the renovations, while 29% said that it was right for taxpayers to pay for the royal revamp.
The poll suggests that the public would be more likely to support renovations if the royals could find a way to meet the costs without relying on the taxpayer.
The 775-room palace is currently undergoing a ten-year refurbishment programme which began in 2017. The project involves replacing electrical cabling, plumbing and heating tanks and installing new wheelchair lifts.
The massive bill to the taxpayer has drawn criticism from Labour MP Norman Baker, who said: “First of all, the renovations should be smaller in scale — it is far too opulent.
“And secondly, it should be funded through visitor ticket sales in the same way that the repair of Windsor Castle was funded after the fire in 1992. It should not come from the public taxpayer.”
The five-year reconstruction project at Windsor Castle cost £36.5m in 1992, £78.80m today when adjusted for inflation. The Queen paid for 70% of the reconstruction.
Baker continued, “If you go back to the damage at Windsor Castle in 1992, the government said that the public should pay for that but the public very clearly said ‘no’. It meant the royal family had to take a step back and that’s when Buckingham Palace introduced ticketed entry.”
The Buckingham Palace reservicing programme is being funded by a temporary increase in the sovereign grant, which comes from the treasury.
The grant will rise from £86.3m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26 to help to pay for the final stages of the work on Buckingham Palace.
