The cost of the monarchy to the taxpayer in the UK rose by five per cent last year as the royal household stepped-up spending on the maintenance of its palaces.
The public cost of the monarchy is 56 pence per person in the UK. The Queen's official expenditure increased in actual terms by 2.4 million pounds from the previous year, a real-terms rise of 5 per cent.
The Sovereign Grant, which covers the costs of the Queen's income for official duties, will hit 40 million pounds in April 2015.
The grant is calculated as a percentage of profits from the Crown Estate, which includes properties such as Windsor Park and much of the UK coastline.
Under the formula set in 2012, the grant rose to 37.9 million pounds in April and will go up a further 5.7 per cent in the next financial year.
It is tied to the income from the Crown Estate, which published record profits of 267 million pounds as part of accounts released here today.
Buckingham Palace accounts show about a third of the grant is spent maintaining the royal palaces and this year more than 4 million pounds has been spent on converting offices in Kensington Palace in London into an apartment for Prince William, wife Kate and baby prince George.
The work included the removal of asbestos, new heating, hot and cold water, electrical services and "simple redecoration".
The furnishings and a new kitchen had been paid for privately by the royal family, a palace official said.
There has been some criticism of the exorbitant sums spent on the refurbishment for Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's London home but a Kensington Palace spokesperson stressed: "Before the project started, the residence was in a state of disrepair.It was last refurbished in 1963."
Buckingham Palace claimed the cost of the monarchy - not including security - was equivalent to just over a penny a week for every person in the UK.
Aside from the Queen's income, the rest of the profit goes to the UK Treasury. Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the Privy Purse, said public funding of the monarchy had fallen by 8 per cent in real terms in the last two years when maintenance costs are stripped out.
He said: "We take our responsibility to run as efficient an operation as possible. In our view we think that we do as good a job as possible in terms of trying maximise the value for money."
But Graham Smith, chief executive of the group Republic which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy, said: "The job of reporting royal finances needs to be taken out of the hands of the palace and given to some honest brokers.
