King Charles announced no fewer than 40 government bills in his traditional speech to mark the State Opening of Parliament. From establishing a new wealth fund, to charging VAT on private schools, to radical changes to the planning process, the King’s Speech was heavy on big, headline-grabbing policies that will touch the lives of people across the country. But there was one bill the King read through which will affect him in particular.
However, it generates huge revenue for the exchequer, some of which is siphoned off to fund the monarchy. Last year it made a net income of £442.6m, of which 88 per cent went to the Treasury, and 12 per cent went to the monarch. Its portfolio comprises stock that ranges from the entirety of Regent Street and much of St James’s, from which it generates rent from leaseholders, to 106,000 hectares of arable and livestock farmland, to 10,000 hectares of forestry.