King Charles and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace when £369m refurbishment work is expected to finish next year, choosing to remain at Clarence House. The announcement comes alongside fresh details on the king’s tax payments and a sharp rise
King Charles and Queen Camilla are not preparing to make Buckingham Palace their home.
When £369m of building work to update the palace is due to finish next year. they will still be based at Clarence House. their London residence nearby. The decision was announced as the palace’s finances and the king’s tax payments for 2024-25 were made public. reshaping a debate that has long followed every bill and every refurbishment.
It also changes the immediate picture of what the palace will be used for day to day. Chalmers said Charles and Camilla chose not to move after “careful consideration and to greatly increase opportunities for public access”. and that they would remain at Clarence House for the duration of his reign. They would have access to private rooms at Buckingham Palace to retire to during the day and for occasional overnight stays.
Buckingham Palace, Chalmers added, will continue as both the ceremonial and operational centre of royal life—monarchy headquarters, with the sovereign’s standard flying from the roof whenever the king is in London.
“[Buckingham Palace] is and will remain monarchy HQ, the crown jewel of our national buildings, with the sovereign’s standard flying proudly from the roof whenever his majesty is in London,” Chalmers said.
A royal spokesperson described the palace’s role in more vivid terms, saying it would be a “buzzing hive of royal activity in every other way”. “The palace will continue in every traditional way to be the beating heart of the monarchy, just not its resting head,” the spokesperson said.
The timing matters because the refurbishment bill—£369m—had been framed as part of an effort to modernise a building that has been a royal residence since the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. It is not known whether Prince William intends to move there when King Charles became the first monarch to publish their tax bill.
Tax figures published alongside the decision show the king paid £12.9m in income and capital gains tax in 2024-25 on his personal income, known as the privy purse. Accounts also show Prince William paid £7.76m for the same period. The previous year, the king paid £11.7m.
There is no legal obligation on the king, or Prince of Wales, to pay tax. But the article notes that in 1993, after public outcry over proposals that the public should foot the restoration bill following a fire at Windsor Castle, the late Queen Elizabeth II and Charles “volunteered” to pay tax.
The lack of detail has remained a central point of criticism. The tax campaigner Dan Neidle called the limited information shared a “sideshow”. saying there was no transparency because nothing was verifiable. He argued that proper disclosure would mean publishing detailed accounts similar to those produced by large private companies.
Neidle also said: “The reality is that the king is completely unlike any other taxpayer, and the boundary between personal assets and crown assets is very wobbly. So it’s far from clear he should receive the same privacy.”
Graham Smith, chief executive officer of the anti-monarchy group Republic, focused on the sovereign grant. He said: “Despite ongoing concerns about the huge cost of the royals. the grant will remain hugely inflated on its initial level of £31m in 2012. If that had risen by inflation the grant would stand at £45m, not £100m.”.
Smith added: “The government agreed to spend £369m on refurbishing Buckingham Palace, and now Charles doesn’t want to use it. But he’ll keep it under lock and key for when he does. Clearly the palace needs to be fully open to the public all year round.”
Under the current access arrangements, the public can visit the palace in seasonal tours of its state rooms, guided access to the East Wing, and visits to the King’s Gallery and the Royal Mews.
Other critics pointed to what they see as a wider lack of oversight. George Foulkes. a Labour peer and former Scotland minister. said he was “deeply worried about the amount of money being spent and the lack of transparency”. He believed the publication of the king’s tax payments was a “diversionary tactic to get away from the whole question of the sovereign grant”.
Foulkes argued: “What we really need is a giant committee of both houses of the Commons and the Lords to have some supervision of this expenditure. Governments, even Labour governments, are reluctant to clamp down. It’s too much of an establishment closing ranks. It does need a more radical look.”
The question of money sits at the centre of the latest disclosures. The palace finances show the core sovereign grant—the public money provided to the king to carry out official duties—has almost doubled in three years. From 2027-28 it will be £99.9m. up from £51.8m in 2024-25. following a review by the royal trustees: the UK prime minister. Keir Starmer; the chancellor. Rachel Reeves; and the king’s accountant and keeper of the privy purse. James Chalmers.
That grant will now be set for five years from 2027-28 at 20.5%. the Treasury announced. with £99.9m being the amount in that year. The crown estate is described as an independent property and land business mandated to act in the national interest. with the sovereign grant linked to crown estate profits two years previously.
The king’s other income stream is also included in the material released: Charles received £25.2m from the 2025-26 profits from the Duchy of Lancaster, described as a historical portfolio of land and assets held in trust for reigning sovereigns to give them a private income.
The report states there was no breakdown of his tax bill. It explains that tax is only payable on the amount of the duchy surplus less official expenses. which include funding other working royals and costs not met by the sovereign grant. It also says Charles pays tax on private capital gains on assets including the private estates of Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham in Norfolk. as well as investments and private savings.
The announcement also includes changes for the king’s eldest son. It was revealed that Prince William will no longer personally benefit from the £1.5m annual rent generated by the abandoned Dartmoor prison. William has asked for the sum to be removed from the Duchy of Cornwall—from 2026-27 onwards—and the money will be spent on regenerating Princetown. the isolated rural community next to the prison.
Between the refusal to “move into” Buckingham Palace and the insistence on keeping it as monarchy HQ. the message is clear: the refurbishment money is not being tied to everyday living. Yet for critics. the figures released with the decision are not closing the gap—they are widening it. with arguments still focused on what is kept private. what is public. and how much scrutiny the sovereign grant should face.
For now, the royal home for day-to-day life is settled: Clarence House. Buckingham Palace will remain the ceremonial and operational centre—just not the “resting head” of the king and queen—when the refurbishment ends next year.
Buckingham Palace Clarence House King Charles Queen Camilla £369m refit sovereign grant privy purse tax payments James Chalmers Keir Starmer Rachel Reeves Republic Dan Neidle Dartmoor prison Duchy of Cornwall