How much should British taxpayers pay to keep the royal family living in the style they’re accustomed?
It’s a question few in the U.K. have considered, largely because assessing the true cost of the monarch’s finances is a murky business, both opaque and highly secretive, with a myriad of rules and customs serving to stifle public debate.
Financial accounts show the sovereign grant that supports King Charles III and his family in carrying out their official duties increased by 53% in the last financial year. It now stands at £132 million ($174 million). That’s a big leap — more than quadruple the £31 million of the initial grant when it was introduced in 2012, despite promises by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of the day that it would provide better value for money than the old civil list system.
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