Cost
Official costs of the royals
37.4 As disclosed by the royal finances 2005/06:
Royal Finance Report
Additional security costs
100.0* Estimated by the Times in 2004:
The Times article
Unpaid tax
0.5 The Prince avoids Corporation Tax on the Duchy estimated to be around £500,000.
IT Week news story
Unpaid tax (Queen)
Unknown (£5m+?) The Times article
Grants in Aid to Prince Charles
2.0* Given to partly cover costs of official residence and travel:
BBC News story
Costs to Local Councils (for royal visits)
10.0* Official cost of Queen's visit to Brighton in March 2007 was £11,451, as disclosed to Republic via a Freedom of Information request.
Extrapolating this cost for each visit undertaken in 2006 by the Queen's (425) and Prince Charles (500) would mean costs to local councils of £4,866,675 and £5,725,500 respectively.
Telegraph article
Therefore the figure given is a conservative estimate based on these costs, particularly as it does not include visits undertaken by other royals (total number of visits is claimed by the royal press office to be near to 3,000).
Royal site It is also worth considering that in 2007 a visit by the Queen to Romsey left the local town council with a bill for £58,000, including £5000 for a new toilet.
Daily Mail article
TOTAL 149.1 - *Estimates
Here are the costs of Saxe-Coburg -Whoops!- I mean Windsor family- comparable European heads of state:
UK £150m (£37m officially)
Ireland £1.5m
Austria £3.5m
Finland £7.9m
Germany £9.9m
What we could buy with 150 million pounds:
8792 new nurses; or
7575 new police officers; or
7450 new teachers; or
3000 new GPs; or
462 new hospital beds; or
15 new schools