London: The royal family costs every Briton 66 pence a year. The other way of looking at it is it adds up to around 40 million pounds for regal life in the Buckingham Palace, prompting anti-monarchy groups to say it is a waste of public money.

However, the Queen finds the money inadequate. Her palaces are crumbling and need money for repairs, she bemoans. State rooms have leaky roofs and peeling wallpaper, the tiles are slipping and the wiring is 50 years old.

Palace officials say at least 32 million pound is needed for the upkeep of the palaces over the next 10 years.

This year's Royal accounts add up to 40 million pounds in all, up by around �2 million over last year. This includes �275,000 spent on a Caribbean cruise by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall which helped the total bill on royal trips to cross the �6 million mark.

Double-glazing and new sash windows at Windsor Castle cost �300,000. The Queen's garden parties swelled the expenses by �700,000. Maintaining the royal gardens does not come cheap. Last year the expenses were just a little over �900,000.

Anti-monarchy groups say the actual costs for royal upkeep would hover around the �150 million park if one takes into account if the costs of police and army security are included.

Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Alan Reid, counters it is still not a bad deal for the British tax payers. The expenditure of the royal pensioner is 66 pence per person in the country. That is equal to the price of a loaf of bread or a pint of milk or an iPod download, he argues.

He himself takes home a salary of �187,000 a year.