King Charles is Planning a “Major Shakeup” to Household Staff, Reportedly Plans to Cut 20 Percent of Jobs

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published 28 August 2023

We’ve heard about King Charles’ vision for a “slimmed-down monarchy” for years, but that’s not just in relation to the number of working royals. The plan will affect household staff as well, and The Independent reports that the king plans to cut middle-management staff by as much as 20 percent to increase efficiency.

Both Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, are said to disapprove of what they believe are too many staff members doing similar jobs, according to The Mail on Sunday. The cuts will reportedly impact “dozens” of employees across Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Windsor Castle, and Balmoral.

King Charles and Queen Camilla at Royal Ascot

Charles is conscious of how much the royal family costs the U.K. taxpayer; the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant totaled £86.3 million from 2020 to 2021. “There is a real feeling that the staffing at all the palaces is too heavy,” a source told The Mail on Sunday. “There are far too many assistants to assistants. The King and Queen would prefer to pay people proper wages top to bottom but have less people. For instance, there are chefs for them and chefs for the staff. Why, they ask, can’t there be one lot of kitchen staff for everyone?”

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Camilla in particular will have a key role in overseeing the changes in royal staffing, with the source adding that she “cannot abide too many people doing the same jobs.” The issue has been raised with Vice Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, the Master of the Household. He and Sir Michael Stevens, keeper of the privy purse, were put in charge of the period of transition following the Coronation, and Camilla wishes to have the royal household adhere to the “Clarence House way” of operations, referring to her and Charles’ home, Clarence House.

“It is not about cuts,” a senior figure told The Evening Standard. “It is about getting the best value for money from those on the payroll. Sometimes less is more.”

According to The Mail on Sunday, just under 500 permanent workers were employed by the monarchy at the end of March across the royal households, which means, if figures reported are correct, around 100 could stand to lose their jobs.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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