The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Frogmore Cottage has been renovated with £2.4 million of taxpayers’ money, royal accounts have revealed.
Harry and Meghan’s country residence, close to Windsor Castle, underwent major work to turn five properties back into a single home for the couple and their baby son Archie – with all fittings and fixtures privately paid for by the duke and duchess.
It is likely they installed a luxury kitchen and bathroom and it has reportedly been designed by the couple with dining and entertaining in mind and with extra bedrooms to accommodate guests, like the duchess’ mother Doria Ragland.
Accounts for the Sovereign Grant, which funds the Queen and her household’s official expenses, show the monarchy cost the taxpayer £67m during 2018-19 – an increase of almost £20m on the previous financial year.
A large amount of the rise was due to work updating the decades-old services at Buckingham Palace and maintaining the occupied royal palaces.
The Core Sovereign Grant which helps fund the work of the Queen and her household, and pays for other activities like official royal travel, increased by £3.6m to £49.3m.
Sir Michael Stevens, Keeper of the Privy Purse, who is responsible for monarchy’s accounts, said of Frogmore Cottage: “The property had not been the subject of work for some years and had already been earmarked for renovation in line with our responsibility to maintain the condition of the occupied royal palaces estate.
"The Sovereign Grant covered the work undertaken to turn the building into the official residence and home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their new family.
“The building was returned to a single residence and outdated infrastructure was replaced to guarantee the long-term future of the property.
“Substantially all fixtures and fittings were paid for by Their Royal Highnesses.”
Harry and Meghan moved f rom their Nottingham Cottage home in the grounds of Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage, a Grade II listed mid-Victorian building in Home Park near Windsor Castle, ahead of the birth of their son Archie.
A royal source said the major work on the couple’s cottage included replacing defective wooden ceiling beams, while heating systems were updated.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel