To think that when more people than ever are having to use

[lottieandmia]

The Royal Family should pay for their own fucking renovations on the palace. It makes me so mad, we supposedly have a deficit so bad that disabled people are being declared fit for work 10 days before they die from their condition.

Something is very wrong. Don't tell me they bring in loads of revenue from tourism. Think about the cost of security and police protection they already have that is funded by the tax payer.

Sorry that should say 'when more people than ever are having to use food banks' in the title

I can certainly see why you say that but the work needs to be done. Maybe they should have slipped it in by doing 30m of work every year for 10years.

These things cost so much money. But they have to be done.

Why can't they pay for it themselves? They are super rich.

I'm not British so my opinion may be invalid in this argument but I think that even if they were no more (retired to a nice terrace in Croydon perhaps) then Buckingham Palace, Windsor and Kensington Palace, etc with guided tours may be just as (if not more) profitable.

As I understand it the money is coming from them keeping a larger percentage of the profit that the royals generate, which means we're not just giving away money that has nothing to do with them.

And of course much of the expense is that they are old buildings which are £££££ to repair/upkeep so that would be forever more. I'm not sure the actual personalities are necessary though (bar Queen Elizabeth who is an admirable character by most standards)

In the news I heard that it would come directly from our exchequer. That the Queen would be getting 25% while this work is being carried out.

Esme - yes I agree. Keep the landmarks open and get rid of the unremarkable royal family that we are all supposed to bow and scrape to because of nothing other than accident of birth.

It's disgraceful. Cuts everywhere. We get poorer and work harder while the rich get richer.

So there's no money for the likes of us but they can find that much for them.

Buckingham Palace isn't really a personal home to the Royals. The queen uses it as her weekday work place. They receive public guests, host functions and a lot of administrative work is done. If we are to believe The Crown ( I do!) then the Royals have all hated Buckingham palace and nobody wanted to live there.

It's in a dangerous condition. No doubt the funding should be divided up to meet the costs but I'm not sure they should have to pay for it all themselves.

Monarchy rights or wrongs aside, as a nation we need to preserve our monuments.

The royal family should be ashamed IMO .... that vast amount of money could save lives in the NHS!!!

This is a good investment IMO. The renovation will cost £360 million, and will last until at least 2076, so considering that the UK gets £310 million a YEAR from tourists, this will pay for itself in 12 years (the renovation will take 10 years to complete).

It's a national monument - even if we got rid of the royal family it would still need to be preserved. TBH I think it's money well spent - and if you work out how much it will actually cost each taxpayer it's nothing.

I'm not so fussed on the renovation cost at Buckingham Palace but the projected £5bn to fix the Houses of Parliament that made me Can't we just move them all offshore?

In all fairness Buckingham P hasn't been touched in decades, regardless of who's living there, it would need to be renovated and brought up to standards. I saw a video about it and it looks grim, electric wires all over the place and pipes no longer fit for purpose. That money is over a 10 year period and then B. P won't be touched again for another few decades.

Do I want to spend all that money on it : No
Do I think it is needed : Yes.

It's the government's job to make the right cuts and they're not. Buildings don't wait until their's enough money to fix it up before they fall apart, it happens and as we own these buildings, we, the taxpayer, should pay for it.

It's a land mark that needs repairing, britains budget is over 700 billion and the less than 400 million needed for repairs happens over years.
It isn't cash being set on fire it's money that will go to trades and pay wages.
You shouldn't care so much about something you know so little about.

The Queen has run down her reserves enormously during her reign and they've paid for works to the other palaces.

This one is also the offices. And £350m for the head of state's office /residency is a drop in the ocean compared to the likely costs for the Houses of Parliament.

But as do think YABU for starting the umpteenth thread on this is the last 48hours.

£369 million over 10 years is a drop in the ocean compared to the deficit and is surely easily covered by the income generated through tourism by the Royal family?

The NHS budget is £115billion per annum

The cost if renovations, which is spread over 10 years, is c.£30m, and is little more than a rounding error compared to the NHS spend.

Though it does beg the question, what shoudk the government cut altogether? Not the costs of the head of state, but perhaps all arts and heritage spending?

I live in an old house. I wish taxpayers' money would cover my renovations.

Just knew mumsnet would be hysterical about this as soon as I heard it on the news!

If we got rid of the royals it would still need renovating! It needs to be safe for all visitors and staff at the very least

It's an official residence, not the Queen's home. Of course it needs maintaining. It's grade 1 listed: it's not like they can get Joe Bloggs painting services in.

I'd like to know how it's been allowed to get into the state it's in, if it's so bad it's getting close to dangerous in parts?

Surely if certain issues had been fixed earlier, before things got so bad, it wouldn't be costing as much?

The cost of upkeep of BP, should the monarchy ever be gone (oh please let it happen one day), would be easily funded by the revenue of it being open to tourism ALL YEAR. At the moment, it is only open for a few weeks over summer, without the parasites in place, it could be a full-time operation.

It's not a private home. It's not like she can dispose of it. It doesn't belong to her, why should it come out of her pocket?
Even if the royal family were to disappear tomorrow, these renovations would still need to happen.