King Charles moves to slash royal paycheck in move to modernize monarchy

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- King Charles III announced Thursday he would return to British taxpayers $1.2 billion earned from generating green energy on crown lands in the first sign of his intention to shake up the monarchy, starting with the state funding of the institution.

The announcement came as The Crown Estate unveiled six new offshore wind-farm energy projects that are expected to come online by the end of the decade. The projects off the east and west coasts of England are expected to produce 8 gigawatts of electricity, sufficient to power 7 million homes.

Unlike most of the royal families elsewhere in Europe, the British royals receive funding, known as the Sovereign Grant, from the state in return for their official work and constitutional role. The grant, which is based on 25% of The Crown Estate's profits, saw the royal family receive $106.5 million last year.

Charles, who succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II upon her death in September, said in his Christmas message that he wants to reduce the burden on U.K. taxpayers amid a cost-of-living crisis, record-high inflation and a cost of living crisis.

Returning the profits from the wind farms will reduce this percentage so that more is kept by the Treasury for public spending.

"In view of the offshore energy windfall, the keeper of the privy purse has written to the prime minister and chancellor to share the king's wish that this windfall be directed for the wider public good, rather than to the Sovereign Grant, through an appropriate reduction in the proportion of Crown Estate surplus that funds the Sovereign Grant,'' Buckingham Palace said in a statement to UPI.

Anti-monarchists have rejected the move as a PR stunt designed to pre-empt a government decision to reduce the percentage. The chief executive of the Republic lobbying group, Graham Smith, told the BBC the king's statement "reflected an arrangement he had no power to change."

Under Britain's system of constitutional monarchy, it is the royal trustees of the Sovereign Grant -- the prime minister, the chancellor and the keeper of the privy purse -- who decide the percentages, not the monarch.