The Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the Queen’s 70-year reign took place over four days during the extended bank holiday weekend, providing an opportunity for communities to come together to celebrate Her Majesty’s historic milestone.
However, one of the biggest topics for conversation in the run up to the weekend was how much the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were costing the taxpayer and whether or not it would boost the UK economy.
In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at how much of taxpayers’ money was spent on the Jubilee and its impact on the economy during the current cost of living crisis.
How Much Did the Platinum Jubilee Weekend Actually Cost and Where Did the Money Come From?
Government Funding
In last year’s Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak set aside £28m to fund the festivities. Although concerns were raised over whether the money could be better spent elsewhere, according to The Times, this amount would only help to run the NHS for around 2 hours.
How Much Did the Platinum Jubilee Cost Taxpayers?
A post on Facebook went viral after it claimed that if the estimated £1billion being spent on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was divided among UK households, it would mean a windfall tax of £38,000 for each household.
This post was soon deleted after it was made clear that the maths calculations were very wrong. Dividing £1billion by the number of Uk households would give a figure much closer to £38 as opposed to £38,000.
Additionally, presuming the £1billion figure refers to the amount taxpayers will be paying, it is a large overestimate. Although we don’t yet have accurate figures on the total cost, a more reliable source estimated that the taxpayer cost would be around £1 per household.
How Was the £28m Government Jubilee Fund Spent?
The £28million fund was said to have been divided accordingly across a number of projects, including £3m which was allocated to over 100 different venues such as village halls for ‘revamps’ and improvement projects.
The Department for Education also spent a sum of £12million on the publication and distribution of a commemorative book for primary school children in the UK which highlighted the milestones and achievements of the Queen’s 70-year reign.
This cost around £3 per pupil, however, it hasn’t been made clear whether the £12m was taken from £28m from the taxpayer.
The National Lottery
The National Lottery made £22million available for communities across England, dividing the fund between 70 community projects which each received grants of up to £50,000.
Arts Council England
Arts Council England also issued grants of up to £10,000 under the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund to ensure creative and cultural activities ‘took centre stage’ throughout the celebrations and another £175,000 was given to local libraries.
Additional Expenses
With more police officers on duty over the four day weekend to keep celebrations in order, the cost of policing increased, however, the total costs are not yet clear.
Independent Fundraising
The highlight of the weekend’s celebrations was the Jubilee Pageant which was estimated to have cost around £15m.
This cost was covered by the Platinum Jubilee Pageant Ltd, which has been independently fundraising to deliver the pageant at no cost to the taxpayer. Sponsors who helped provide the funding included Burberry, Jaguar and Meta.
The Impact of the Jubilee Weekend on the Economy
Although the total bill for the celebrations would hardly be noticed on the public balance sheet, the cost of the entire country not working for an extra day was more noticeable.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published an impact assessment that indicated the additional Jubilee bank holiday would cost the economy around £2.39bn.
Although this may seem like a significant dent in the economy, fortunately, the jubilee also boosted it.
The economy was estimated to have had a £6.37billion boost from jubilee spending and tourism, with over one fifth of the British population planning to attend street parties, thousands of tourists travelling to the UK for the event and retailers selling out of jubilee themed decorations, clothes and food.
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