Big tax-free rises to royals

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 6

Big tax-free rises to royals

NZPA London A 30 per cent increase for Princess Anne is the biggest surprise in the Civil List — Government cash paid to cover official royal engagements — disclosed by the British Treasury yesterday. Princess Anne’s allowance will go up from $150,420 to $198,000. . It is much larger than increases for most other members of the royal family, including the' Queen Mother who will celebrate her eightieth birthday this palace spokesman said this was because Princess Anne’s household had overspent by several thousand rounds “in pursuance of official duties” during the last financial year. The spokesman added: “A major factor in her costs has' been the upkeep of Gattombe Park.”

Gatcombe Park is the princess’s SIM home in Gloucestershire, a wedding present from the Queen. It is classified as' an “official residence” and its upkeep is met from the Civil List

The spokesman said of Gatcombe Park : "Obviously it is more expensive to run a separate residence than to live in Buckingham Palace.” The princess’s husband, Captain Mark Phillips, said recently when he accepted a $140,000 sponsorship from British Leyland that they were “just a young couple with a mortgage.” The mortgage was to 'build a swimming pool for their horses.

The new Civil List allowances, which are tax-free, include: the Queen $6,317,000 up by more than SIM; the Queen Mother $570,000, up by $85,000; Prince Philip $314,000, up by $75,600;

Princess Anne $198,000, up by $47,000; Princess Margaret $191,000, up by $24,400.

Prince Andrew continues to receive $47,000 the sum agreed on his eighteenth birthday two years ago. Prince Charles gets no money from the Civil List. His engagements are paid for by revenues from the duchy of Cornwall. While the Queen’s slice of the Civil List goes up by 19 per cent, the palace spokesman was quick to point out that she was in effect taking a rise of only 13.3 per cent in real terms.

He said the rest of the money was needed to meet the cost of stationery, anything from a royal warrant to an invitation to a palace garden party. “The difference has to do with the fact .that, like other Government departments, we have now been required to

.buy our stationery commercially.” The spokesman said the Queen’s rise had meant a severe economy drive at the palace but the “scale and style of royal occasions and appearances” had not been reduced.

The palace had followed Government policy on economies, and cut manpower through voluntary redundancy and retirement. Other economies included postponing the replacement of royal cars. , The spokesman said threequarters of the Queen’s increase would be swallowed up by higher staff wages. Out of her own pocket the Queen will pay the expense of public engagements undertaken by the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, and Princess Alice, Countess of AtMone.