Queen Elizabeth in line for pay rise

London, June 29: Britain's Queen Elizabeth is set to receive a $72,000 a week pay rise, an official report revealed.

The Queen's income is based on a percentage of money earned by the Crown Estate, one of the wealthiest real estate owners in Britain, Xinhua news agency reported.

In its annual report issued on Tuesday, the Crown Estate disclosed that it has delivered a record $405 million to the Treasury in the past year.

Unless the current formula is altered, it will mean that in 2017 the Queen's pay packet will be almost $61 million, 6.5 per cent higher than the %57 million she is receiving this year, and representing a 57 per cent increase over what was paid in 2012.

The sum is worked out by paying to the Queen 15 per cent of the surplus made by the Royal Estate, paid two years in arrears.

The figure can only be changed by three royal trustees, the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Alan Reid, who has the title of the Queen's Keeper of the Privy Purse.

The three are currently in the process of a review which could affect the amount due to the monarch next year, a government official said.

A spokesman at Buckingham Palace said that it was too early to speculate on what the result would be or what amount the Queen would receive for 2017-18.

The report also showed the monarchy cost British taxpayers $53.5 million in 2015-16, with more than $21 million spent on the upkeep of royal households such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as well as other royal households and buildings.

The 90-year-old Queen and the royal family's official travel cost the taxpayer $5.4 million in the past year, a reduction of more than $1 million compared to 2015.

The Crown Estate owns London's Regent Street as well as the entire seabed around Great Britain. It also owns Windsor Great Park, and Ascot's famous racecourse, as well as estates and properties in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and across England.

The office of the Crown Estate was started in 1760 when it was agreed that surplus revenue from the crown's estate would go to the Government Treasury. In return reigning monarchs receive an annual payment, 15 per cent of the annual surplus of the estate to support official royal duties.

IANS