UK taxpayers will pay an additional £27.3 million ($33 million) over the next two years to plug a funding gap at the royal family and cover a drop in profit at the Crown Estate, which helps pay their expenses.
Demands for more government cash follow a 17% increase in spending by the royals last year and comes at a time when the average UK household income fell for the longest period since records began in 1955. Family incomes are 1.3% lower than the year before, and public-sector workers have walked off the job in protest against pay offers below the current rate of inflation.
