Queen Cost British Taxpayers Less in the past Year

LONDON (AP) — British taxpayers spent 32.1 million pounds ($51.7 million) supporting the monarchy in the past year, 5.3 percent less than the year before, as Queen Elizabeth II joined a national cost-cutting drive.

Official accounts for the year to March 31 show much of the saving came from reducing the bill for maintenance of royal residences, from 15.4 million pounds to 11.9 million pounds.

The report says cost constraints mean maintenance will be reduced to "urgent reactive repairs" and plans to refurbish state rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle will be scrapped.

Last week the government announced that the monarch must join her subjects in austerity measures aimed at reducing Britain's deficit. Funding to the royal family will fall by about 9 percent by 2015.