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Royal family claim £100MILLION from taxpayers as nation battles Cost of Living crisis
A series of costs incurred by senior royals such as the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have continued to rise in recent years despite ordinary Brits forced to cut their spending
The Royal Family cost taxpayers £102.4million last year, a report reveals today.
As the nation struggled in the cost of living crisis, spending on the royals rose £15million – 17% – to top £100m for the first time.
Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “It’s not right.”
The multi-million-pound renovation of Buckingham Palace helped to drive up the bill for the royal family.
Spending on the project rose to £63.9million, up £14.4million on the previous year, as work intensified to prepare the palace for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Queen was in another of her official residences yesterday, receiving Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
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.
Royal finances expert Norman Baker said: “The Government should have a complete rethink of how taxpayers’ money is allocated to the Royal Family.
“We have no say in how the royals choose to use private jets or helicopters, which are all paid for out of the public purse, and while ordinary people are struggling it isn’t right.” The 10-year Buckingham Palace renovation project appears to be on target to cost £369million.
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.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton during their royal tour in Jamaica ( Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The report shows spending on the royals rose by almost £15million in 2021/22, up more than 17% on the previous year.
Sir Michael said: “The year was not without operational and financial challenges. Covid meant we had another year in which access to the Royal Palaces was restricted for The Royal Collection Trust, which again affected our ability to help self-finance our work on behalf of the nation.”
Costs incurred by senior royals continued to rise as their subjects tightened their belts.
Prince William and Kate’s ill-fated trip to the Caribbean, where the future king admitted he had not been alive to anti-monarchy sentiment in Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas, cost £226,000 in flights and accommodation.
Despite campaigning on environmental issues, Prince Charles still flies between his royal residences at an average cost of £15,000 a time.
The Queen’s royal train cost £100,000 for just three outings last year, but is now exclusively powered by “hydro treated vegetable oil”, royal sources revealed.
As a non-working royal, like Prince Harry and his wife Megan, Prince Andrew no longer qualifies for public funding and gets nothing from the Sovereign Grant. He is now thought to be exclusively funded privately by his mother, the Queen.
Caribbean tour
William and Kate’s controversial visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas cost roughly £226,000.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came in for 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”.
In an unprecedented statement, William said after the Caribbean visit: “Tours are an opportunity to reflect. You learn so much.
“This tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future. In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon.”
Royal train
The Queen will not give up using the royal train despite just three outings for her and Prince Charles costing £100,000
steps off the Royal train ( Image: @leeeeannex/TikTok)
The Queen will hold on to her favourite mode of transport, which she can travel and sleep on when on engagements – despite it being used so little each year.
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.
A royal aide said: “The Queen has no plans to stop using the royal train which provides excellent value for money.”
Green fuel
Environmentalist Charles committed to using “green fuel” for plane journeys where he can, despite it costing the public purse far more than normal fuel A source close to the prince said the future king called him a “pioneer”and likened the situation to “buying a video recorder in the 1980s”.
The source added: “The prince is aware of the extra cost but the destructive cost to the environment during a climate emergency is far greater”.
Meghan & Harry
Harry and Meghan are now paying for themselves – the Prince of Wales no longer funds them 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.
During the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March last year, Harry said “my family literally cut me off financially” in “the first quarter of 2020”.
A source close to Prince Charles said the Duke and Duchess “should be congratulated on achieving their goal” in raking in millions from the private sector – despite using their new found 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.
Charity cash
Changes to the way the royal charities accept donations have been implemented after Prince Charles accepted £2.6million in cash from a former prime minister of Qatar.
The Prince of Wales will never again handle large sums in notes to be passed to his charities, a royal source has stated.
Charles faced criticism over being presented with one million euros stuffed in a briefcase while two other cash gifts of more than £1.6million were given in Fortnum & Mason carrier bags between 2011 and 2015.
A report claimed the heir to the throne personally accepted the donations for his charity The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, above .
A royal source said Charles acts on advice and such incidents have not happened in the past five years and will not happen again.
Bullying probe
Buckingham Palace has been accused of a whitewash after refusing to reveal the findings of an independent law firm instructed to investigate allegations that Meghan Markle bullied junior staff during her time as a royal.
The probe was launched in March last year after the Duchess of Sussex was accused of bullying at least two palace aides – occasionally reducing staffers to tears and “humiliating” another.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said it would “not tolerate bullying and harassment” and was “very concerned by the allegations” that the Duchess – who has denied the claims – forced out two personal assistants and undermined the confidence of a third.
A senior palace source cited the confidentiality of those who took part in the review as to why details were not released.
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
The Global Network of Export-Import Banks and Development Finance Institutions (G-NEXID) successfully held its sixth (6th) Exchange Programme, hosted by the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) Bank in Accra from March 22 to 23 March.
The event brought together member institutions, partner organisations and Ghanaian public entities to advance dialogue on South-South trade, investment and development finance, while also creating opportunities for knowledge-sharing and institutional cooperation.
Organised as a capacity-building and networking platform, the 2026 edition of the G-NEXID Exchange focused on GEXIM’s experience in developing innovative solutions to promote intra-African and extra-African trade.
It also highlighted trade and investment opportunities in Ghana, particularly in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and broader national development initiatives.
The Exchange Programme forms part of G-NEXID’s mandate to foster cooperation among export-import banks and development finance institutions in support of South-South trade and investment.
This 6th edition follows earlier successful programmes hosted by India Exim Bank (2016), BNDES (2017), Indonesia Eximbank (2018), Afreximbank (2019) and Saudi EXIM Bank (2025).
On the first day, participants were presented with G-NEXID institutional information and received an update on the Network’s 2026 work programme.
There were a series of substantive presentations, including an overview of the Ghanaian economy by the Ministry of Finance, with particular attention to debt-related challenges; a presentation by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), on investment opportunities in the country; and institutional presentations by GEXIM and Development Bank Ghana (DBG) on their respective mandates, initiatives, products and services.
Discussions during the sessions underscored strong interest in sector-focused webinars and business dialogues, particularly in agribusiness value chains such as poultry and rice.
Participants also emphasized the importance of continued information exchange and the sharing of best practices, especially in the area of guarantees.
The second day opened with a presentation on the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme, a national economic transformation strategy launched by President John Dramani Mahama in July 2025.
The initiative aims to enhance economic productivity through continuous industrial activity, accelerated export development and strategic import substitution.
As the programme is expected to mobilise both private and development capital, it presents concrete opportunities for G-NEXID members in areas such as co-financing, guarantees, trade finance and technical cooperation.
The programme also featured institutional presentations by guest organisations, namely the African Guarantee and Economic Cooperation Fund (FAGACE) and the West African Development Bank (BOAD), which shared their mandates, initiatives, products and services.
Following these exchanges, the G-NEXID Secretariat held bilateral discussions with both institutions as part of the Network’s ongoing membership drive.
Participants further benefited from a presentation by the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB), as well as a showcase of GEXIM’s key pipeline projects.
On the margins of the Exchange Programme, G-NEXID members also held their 20th Annual General Assembly Meeting to review progress and discuss strategic priorities.
Following the event, participants joined the GEXIM@10 International Conference, held from March 24-25, 2026 under the theme, “A Decade of Enabling Export Trade and Industrial Transformation: Resetting GEXIM for the Next Frontier.”
The conference provided an important platform for exploring how Ghana can strengthen its transition from a primary commodity exporter to a more competitive player in value-added trade and industrial development.
Source – G-NEXID
President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, signed five bills including three amendment bills passed by Parliament into law.
They are: Security and Intelligence Agencies Bill, 2025; University of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences Bill, 2025; Ghana Deposit Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2025; Growth and Sustainability Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2026; and Education Regulatory Bodies (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
In a brief remark after assenting to the bills, President Mahama explained that the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 2026, scraps the Office of Minister of National Security and frees the President’s to appoint any Minister to supervise the security agencies.
He said it also reverses the name of the office of National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), to the original name, Bureau of National Intelligence, (BNI).
This the President said, addresses the confusion between that security agency and a well-known Ghanaian financial institution, the National Investment Bank.
President Mahama also noted that the University of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences Act, 2026, establishes another University in the Eastern Region, at Bonsu, with three campuses – the main campus at Bonsu in the Eastern Region, with the second campus to be cited at Ohawu in the Oti Region.
The third, the Presdient assed will be located at Acherensua in the Ahafo Region.
Touching on the Amendment to the Growth and Sustainability Levy Act, the President said, “As you’re aware, the act was amended to increase it from 1% to 3%, and so this act reduces it again. That is the levy on mining companies. It reduces it again to 1%, because of the introduction of the sliding scale of royalties.”
He also spoke to the passage of the Government Education Regulatory Bodies Amendment Act, emphasising that amends Act 1023 to grant greater flexibility to private tertiary institutions and the option to Charter.
The Ghana Deposit Protection Amendment Act, the President concluded, is an amendment to an original act that was supposed to guarantee deposits held in commercial banks or financial institutions.
It basically expands protection to include mobile money wallets and other digital platforms, ensuring a wider scope of digital financial assets are secured.
The signing ceremony, was witnessed by the Clerk of Parliament, Mr. Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror, Secretary to the President, Dr Callistus Mahama, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Dr Dominic Akrutinga Ayine, Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, a Senior Presidential Advisor and a Special Aide to the President, Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, and the Vice President, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.
