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The Queen is set to spend £500,000 to repair the lead roof of her Sandringham home
The Queen is set to spend £500,000 of her own money to repair the lead roof of her Sandringham home which hasn’t been touched since it was built in 1870.
The entire north end of Her Majesty’s Norfolk retreat has been covered in scaffolding while repairs are carried out.
But unlike the taxpayer-funded £2.4 million work on Frogmore Cottage – the Windsor home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – the replacement of the lead roof will be paid for by the Queen.
The project will see a single new section craned into place later this summer.
Tom Skinner, of Pimlico Builders, a firm that has carried out similar work but is not involved in the Sandringham refurbishment, said creating the roof off-site and then installing it in one piece would reduce costs and improve quality.
‘There is a lot of welding involved with lead roofs so there are fire hazards,’ he said.
‘Making the section in a controlled environment allows better, more aesthetically pleasing joins because the tiles are not slipping around.’
Visitors to Sandringham House, which opens to tourists between April and October, are met by a notice apologising for any disruption.
‘Works are under way on the north end of Sandringham House to repair a large area of lead roofing which has remained untouched since 1870 when the house was built,’ it reads.
‘It is essential we carry out these works at this time of year when the weather is fair.’
Visitors to Sandringham House, which opens to tourists between April and October, are met by a notice apologising for any disruption. ‘Works are under way on the north end of Sandringham House to repair a large area of lead roofing which has remained untouched since 1870 when the house was built,’ it reads
The notice continues: ‘It is essential we carry out these works at this time of year when the weather is fair’
The estate was bought by the future Edward VII as a country retreat for him and his then fiancee, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, and is traditionally where the Royal Family spend the Christmas period.
Buckingham Palace said: ‘As this relates to work on the Queen’s private estate, it is not something which we would comment on.’
The Sandringham repairs come just months after Harry and Meghan went under fire for the £2.4million taxpayer-funded renovations of Frogmore Cottage.
The Sandringham repairs come just months after Harry and Meghan went under fire for the £2.4million taxpayer-funded renovations of Frogmore Cottage
The royal accounts reveal the £2.4million spent on revamping Harry and Meghan’s new home, the costs of running Charles and Camilla’s household and the amount the Queen spent on travel in 2018/19
Harry and Meghan were living together at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace after their engagement in November 2017.
They were offered the palace’s grander Apartment 1, which boasts 21 rooms and adjoins William and Kate’s Apartment 1A, but chose to move 20 miles away to Frogmore Cottage instead.
Royal expert Robert Jobson, who wrote a best-selling biography on Prince Charles last year, told Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s costing far too much money, £2.4million. They [Harry and Meghan] should’ve seen this coming, they could’ve avoided it by moving in next door to William and Kate’, adding: ‘The royal family does pay for itself overall but the way this has been handled is not very good’.
The couple moved out of Kensington Palace this spring amid reports of a rift with Prince William and his wife Kate.
This money comes from the Sovereign Grant, valued at £82.2 million this year and comprised of profits from the Queen’s property portfolio (the Crown Estate), which are paid to the Government.
Twenty-five per cent of these profits are paid to the monarchy to fund the upkeep of its property, travel, security and staff. While the Sovereign Grant isn’t taxpayer money, it is considered to be public funds, belonging to the state.
The renovations were said to be spent on new water mains, a nursery for Archie, a designer kitchen and high security.
While the Mail on Sunday revealed that the couple spent £5,000 on a freestanding copper bath for their bedroom.
The couple moved out of Kensington Palace this spring amid reports of a rift with his brother William and sister-in-law Kate. They have now spent £2.4million of public money doing up their Windsor home. Pictured: revealing Baby Archie to the world in May at Windsor Castle
A source says the old original chimney stacks have been repointed with chimney liners reportedly inserted in order to accommodate fashionable log burners
The royal couple live under the Heathrow pathway and apparently wanted to block out the the noise from the planes
Plans are being discussed for a tennis or badminton court, which could cost up to £30,000, while £20,000 of fast-growing greenery has been planted for added privacy, the Mail revealed in June.
One of the biggest and most controversial elements of the couple’s move is the security bill, which comes on top of the construction bill and was reported this week to be a whopping £750,000.
Critics have called the spending ‘outrageous’ – but friends of Harry and Meghan, who reportedly employed the interior designer used on celebrity hangout Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, insisted today: ‘It really isn’t as grand as some people might think’.
The £2.4million ‘substantial overhaul’ of Frogmore Cottage – a gift to the couple from the Queen – was approved by Her Majesty but it is still not complete with the costs set to rise by up to £600,000 because of landscaping and more decorating.
Even fans of the royals were scathing about the cost online, with one tweeting: ‘The taxpayer should NOT be paying for Harry and Meghan’s home refurbishments. They are taking advantage of us!’.
Harry and Meghan were offered the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester’s grand Apartment No 1 at Kensington Palace after a year in Nottingham Cottage – but opted to move 20 miles away to take on the £2.4m refurb of Frogmore Cottage
Critics have called the spending ‘outrageous’ – but friends of Harry and Meghan, who reportedly employed the interior designer used on celebrity hangout Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, insisted today: ‘It really isn’t as grand as some people might think’
Even fans of the royals were unimpressed by the seven-figure bill on Twitter this morning
Graham Smith, from the Republic campaign group who want the monarchy abolished, said: ‘If even one school or hospital is facing cuts we cannot justify spending a penny on the royals. Yet with all public services under intense financial pressure we throw £2.4 million at a new house for Harry’.
Former transport secretary Lord Adonis criticised the rise in royal spending, following the publication of the monarchy’s financial accounts.
The Labour peer said: ‘It is disappointing to see royal spending rise so sharply when school budgets are being cut and austerity remains the norm for most public services.
‘I hugely admire the Queen, but the royal family should lead by example and they are not doing so in the case of their own state-funded spending.’
The renovations were said to be spent on new water mains, a nursery for Archie, a designer kitchen and high security but the Mail on Sunday revealed the couple spent £5,000 on a freestanding copper bath for their bedroom
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