Buckingham Palace has said it wants to “remain curious” and “help create a better world” as it unveils a set of recently published “royal values”.
The move, which was made public in the Royal House’s annual report, follows King Charles’s desire to reduce the size of the monarchy and put his stamp on the institution.
The document states that the first few years of Charles’s reign gave him the opportunity to take stock and “define a new expression of his purpose, supported by a renewed set of values.”
These are: ‘Act with care’, ‘Make an impact’, ‘Successful together’, ‘Stay curious’ and ‘Lead the way by setting a good example’.
The report states that the Royal Household’s role is to ‘support the Sovereign in serving the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth to help create a better world’.
Buckingham Palace has unveiled a new set of royal values, including ‘stay curious’ in its annual report. Pictured: King Charles and Queen Camilla leave Parliament House after the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July
Pictured: King Charles smiles as he and Queen Camilla leave the Easter service at Windsor Castle on March 31
In its latest report, the Royal House has promised to ‘place a strong emphasis on value for money’, The Telegraph defeated.
At the same time, the government has deleted a section that promised to be “accountable” for how public money and resources are used.
A sentence has also been deleted that said “different generations of the royal family” would take part in events to make the monarchy “relevant and accessible to people at every stage of life”.
This is in keeping with the ethos that Charles has tried to convey since ascending the throne, with His Majesty keen to give Britain a leaner monarchy.
Since then, the number of working members of the royal family has declined and there are fewer attendees at state events.
This was made clear at Trooping the Colour in June, when Charles was joined on the balcony of Buckingham Palace by a small group of senior members of the royal family and close relatives.
While the three Welsh children were present, there was no room for his nieces Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall, or his nephew Peter Phillips. The Sussexes and his brother Prince Andrew were also nowhere to be seen.
It comes after it was revealed the cost of Royal Family engagements has risen to £4.2m over the past year, despite there being 400 fewer visits and fewer foreign trips.
King Charles waves to the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour on June 15. Pictured left to right: Prince George, The Prince of Wales, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, The Princess of Wales, King Charles, Queen Camilla, The Duchess of Edinburgh, The Duke of Edinburgh and Lady Louise Windsor
King Charles smiles during an audience with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Blenheim Palace on July 18
This was an increase of £300,000 on the previous year, with a royal source attributing it to inflationary pressures caused by the cost of living crisis, which has seen prices of goods and services rise.
The cost of the French state visit should also have fallen in the previous budget year, but was postponed due to the political situation across the Channel, they added.
His Majesty carried out 464 official engagements, down from 565 last year. The Queen carried out 201, 103 of which were joint.
They also made fewer trips abroad, which may have been related to the need to stay closer to home due to illness.
The official report for 2023/24 lists 27 separate trips by members of the royal family where travel costs amounted to at least £17,000. Only eight of these involved the king.
This includes the most expensive trip in the 12 months to March 2024: the King and Queen’s five-day state visit to Kenya in October and November 2023, which cost a total of £166,557.
The King has also been involved in the second and third most expensive trips on the list: a three-day state visit to France with the Queen in September 2023 (£117,942) and a two-day solo trip on the Royal Train to Pickering in North Yorkshire in June 2023 to mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman (£52,013).
The annual Sovereign Grant report, which details how the monarchy is funded by taxpayers, found the coronation cost the palace £800,000.
It was announced on Friday that His Majesty is set to receive a significant increase in income as a result of deals between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate.
King Charles stands next to President Mukhtar Babayev of Azerbaijan, Cop28 President Sultan al-Jaber of the United Arab Emirates and Ana Toni, Cop30 representative and Brazil’s national secretary for climate change
The King’s property group is already making huge profits from the rapidly growing demand for offshore wind. The Crown Estate owns the seabed around the UK and companies that operate offshore wind farms have to pay to lease their sites.
Last week, the company said profits more than doubled to £1.1bn in the 12 months to March. Most of the £658m rise came from extra costs paid by developers who won the rights to build six offshore wind farms in the North Sea and off the coasts of Cumbria, Lancashire and North Wales.
A new round of leasing agreements next year is expected to confirm plans to develop a floating offshore wind industry in the Bristol Channel.
A partnership between the government’s new energy company GB Energy and the Crown Estate could lead to the issuing of leases for an additional 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, double the amount currently installed, according to Sir Keir Starmer.
The move could have a significant impact on the Royal Family’s finances, as any new location would incur additional leasing costs for the Crown Estate.
Under the terms of the Sovereign Grant, the King receives 12 percent of the profits from the Crown Estate to cover the costs of the Royal Family.
A sharp rise in profits could lead to a large increase in the Sovereign Grant.