After the annual royals’ accounts revealed expenditure of £2.7million last year on travel by private jet, helicopters and rail, we want to know whether you think the family cost the taxpayer too much

Is the royal family costing the taxpayer too much? Take our poll(Image: Chris Jackson, Getty Images)

The annual royal accounts have revealed that the family have spent a total of £2.7million last year on travel by private jet, helicopters and rail. One trip by the King and Queen to Australia and Samoa last October cost a staggering £400,000.

Following the accounts being published, it was announced that King Charles would be axing the late Queen’s beloved Royal Train after decades of service in an attempt to save cash. New figures found that the nine-carriage locomotive was only in action twice in the last year but cost £78,000.

As the Royal Train is scrapped, accounts show Charles and the many of the royal family will rely on two new helicopters to get around. Palace aides stressed trains and other transport will be used, however, Charles arrived in Scotland this Wednesday by helicopter. If you can’t see the poll, click here.

James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said axing the Royal Train was an example of the royal family applying “fiscal discipline” in its drive to deliver “value for money”. Mr Chalmers said: “The royal train, of course, has been part of national life for many decades, loved and cared for by all those involved. But in moving forward we must not be bound by the past.

“Just as so many parts of the royal household’s work have been modernised and adapted to reflect the world of today, so too, the time has come to bid the fondest of farewells, as we seek to be disciplined and forward in our allocation of funding. With His Majesty’s support it has therefore been decided that the process to decommission the royal train will commence next year.”

The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the royal family’s official duties and the upkeep of royal palaces, is met from public funds in exchange for the King’s surrender of the revenue from the Crown Estate. The royals then in return get 12 per cent of this revenue back to run their affairs including travel, engagements at home and abroad and welcoming tens of thousands of people to the royal palaces.

The Royal Train was once Queen Elizabeth II’s preferred mode of travel(Image: SSPL via Getty Images)

For the accounts last year, the royals cost the taxpayer £86.3 million for a fourth consecutive year. But record offshore wind farm profits have seen the Crown Estate net profits for the last financial year and hit £1.1 billion – meaning a record breaking Sovereign Grant of £132million will be handed out next year and the year after.

Aides say the extra cash will go towards paying for the £369million refit of Buckingham Palace and the upkeep of other royal residences.

Writing for the Mirror, Norman Baker slammed the royals, saying: “Buckingham Palace pretends the royals are prudent with our money – it’s utter hogwash. Another year, another multimillion-pound splurge on one of the richest families in the country.

“Buckingham Palace pretends the royals are being prudent with public money. What utter hogwash. They even have the cheek to suggest that Charles is being generous because he only takes 12% of the income of the Crown Estate.

“Reality check: the Crown Estate has in effect been a public body since 1760, and until 2011, 100% of its profits went to the Treasury to pay for schools, hospitals, defence and, yes, disability benefits. This 12% is a new royal tax on the public purse.”

What do you think? Is the royal family costing the taxpayer too much? Take our poll and have your say in the comments below.