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“Prime Minister, about my palace roof”

— PHOTO: AP

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in this file photo.

London: Like many pensioners, the 82-year-old resident of London SW1 worries about keeping her home repaired. Her rooms have not been redecorated since the old king died, the wiring is 50 years old, the tiles are slipping and the leadwork on the roofs is more patched than original.

No wonder Queen Elizabeth is worried. A senior courtier said recently: “She keeps asking: ‘Do we have enough money to do certain things?’” Well, up to a point.

The annual royal accounts published show the head of state’s official business cost the British taxpayer £40 million, a £2 million or 6.1 per cent rise on the previous year, though officials were keen to stress this represented a 3.1 per cent decrease in real terms over the last seven years.

The report does not include details of the royal family’s private income or expenditure met out of general government budgets such as the cost of security, but lists public expenditure from the Treasury on the household and its staffing, the upkeep of the royal palaces and travel costs for members of the family on official business.

The Queen carried out 440 engagements to cities and towns in the U.K. last year — an increase of 60 over 2006, held six garden parties, 27 investitures and official visits to the U.S., Uganda, Belgium and the Netherlands. Previously officials have equated the cost of head of state expenditure to the price of a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.

This year, Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse — the Queen’s accountant — compared it to the cost of an iPod download “for those with a technology or youth bent.” He added: “The reduction in the amount of head of state expenditure in real terms reflects the continuous attention the royal household pays to obtaining the best value for money in all areas of expenditure.” The report lists the household’s attempts at reducing carbon emissions. Low-energy bulbs are being installed, the gas boilers are switched off in summer, fuel is bought nine months in advance and water from a borehole at Buckingham Palace is being used to cool the wine cellars and irrigate the garden. Sir Alan painted a picture of Her Majesty going round switching off the lights. “She takes a strong lead,” he said.

But though grants from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for property services increased by £8,00,000 to £15.3 million, Sir Alan and other officials concentrated their fire on the government for an increasing backlog of essential repairs at the palaces. They estimate that if the current maintenance grant of £15 million, held level for the last 12 years, remains the same after the next settlement in 2011, there will be a shortfall of £32 million at current prices in 12 years’ time. It wants an extra £4 million a year from the government. Among the projects listed as urgent is replacing most of the roof at Windsor Castle — all the area not renovated after the fire in 1992. The work there and on the roof of Buckingham Palace is estimated to cost £16 million.

The report states: “There is no allowance in the backlog figure for projects such as the redecoration of state rooms at Buckingham Palace, most of which were last redecorated before the Queen’s reign, or to complete the cleaning of the north, south and west facades of the quadrangle at Buckingham Palace.”

Journalists were told they could speculate on whether the Queen raises the repair of the royal palaces with Gordon Brown when she meets him one-to-one each week: “Prime Minister, about my roof...” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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