Sovereign Grant Review 2026 Campaign

What is the Sovereign Grant?

What are the long-term campaign goals?

The Sovereign Grant Review process offers an excellent opportunity :

1. to energise the debate on royal finances more broadly

2. to grow a cohort of MPs to support efforts for longer-term reform.

How can I help?

. scrapping the Sovereign Grant mechanism all together,

• bringing the Crown Estate fully under public ownership as the National Estate...

• ...and also folding in the Duchies,

• stopping the profits from the Duchies going to the monarch and heir,

• paying the Head of State a salary for performing the duties of the Head of State (pegged to the salary of the Prime Minister)

• funding an office for the Head of State,

• funding only two official properties for the Head of State only (one in London, one in

the country),

• refusing to fund any other members of the family of the Head of State

What are the short-term campaign goals?

You can help by...

1. sending the letter template below to your MP

2. sharing any response with us

3. encouraging other Greens/contacts to send the letter and put pressure on MPs to act!

Dear [name of MP]

I am writing as your constituent, to seek your support with reform of royal finances –

specifically in the context of the upcoming Review of the Sovereign Grant next year.

As you will know, the Sovereign Grant Act 2011 currently ensures an annual amount is

paid to the monarch for performing duties as Head of State. The amount payable by the

Treasury each year is derived from a formula which uses a percentage of the profits from

the publicly-owned Crown Estate as the basis for calculation.

As you may also know, the Sovereign Grant formula is due for review on/after 5 April 2026

(“SGR26”).

A recent House of Commons Library Report on Royal Finances contained some proposals

for reform of royal finances more widely. The 2024 Royal Finances Report by Republic,

entitled “Half a billion pound royals” updated these proposals, and listed a comprehensive

suite of reforms of royal finances. These proposals are annexed below.

The SGR26 represents a unique opportunity to explore royal finances in the round, and to

reform the way in which taxpayers contribute to the very large public sums still paid to the

royal family every year, at a time of real pressure on public finances.

The SGR26 process is especially important because royal finances were not specifically

included in the Spending Round/Review begun by the Chancellor in last October’s budget

– there is no published material on whether the Royal Household is under any obligation to

report in the Spending Round.

So the specific reason for writing now, well in advance of the SGR26 starting, is to ask for

your support with a number of important preparatory steps. It is essential that the

opportunity presented by SGR26 to reform royal finances, and to ensure best possible

value for money for taxpayers from public support to the Head of State, is not squandered

by MPs.

Accordingly, as an initial step in this process, I should be grateful if you would please write

to Darren Jones as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and the Cabinet Minister responsible

for all public finances, including public payments to the royal family, to ask:

• when will the Terms of Reference for SGR26 be prepared? what will the process be

for preparing them? and, specifically, what input will MPs have to the preparation of

the ToRs for SGR26?

• when will the current Treasury Guidance on the Sovereign Grant Act be updated to

remove elements that the recent House of Commons Library Report described as

“not strictly correct” – as a

minimum, the Treasury Guidance should be revised to make clear that Sovereign

Grant payments do not in fact come from a percentage of Crown Estate profits, but

are paid directly from the Treasury, using taxpayers’ money.

• what will the timetable be for bringing forward legislation for reform of the Sovereign

Grant, required after reservicing of Buckingham Palace by 5 April 2027.

I realise that nothing to do with royal finances is straightforward, and I will welcome chance

to discuss these requests with you in person – I should be grateful if your team would

identify a suitable appointment for me in one of your upcoming constituency surgeries for

this purpose.

With many thanks, and looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards

[signed]

The Sovereign Grant is the mechanism by which, according to official Treasury guidance, the British Government “sets the single grant supporting the Monarch’s official business, enabling The King to discharge his duties as Head of State”