He wants a smaller working royal family but no reduction in the Sovereign Grant which funds the official work of the royal family - something doesn't add up.
I brought this before and I still think that this is something that is not widely discussed by the media but will come home to roost eventually.
Random thoughts that I will hopefully be able to tie together:
Even without proactive streamlining, the number of working royals was going to be reduced by attrition anyway due to the lower birth rate.
The time needed to do royal work has also been being reduced due to the "the empire" shrinking, along with modern technology enabling things particularly the advances in transportation, and more recently the acceptance of doing work remotely.
Charles supposedly was given a lot of say in The Way Ahead group, which was formed in the early-mid 1990s because the decisions made would affect his reign, even though presumably, it was not felt that his ascension was imminent. This same sentiment has been expressed about subsequent self-examination and reform efforts by the BRF. Given this I believe that William will also be given considerable say in any self-examination and reform efforts because it will affect his reign.
I suspect that research and analysis has been taking place over the years and that will be a key driver in decisions made. What I assume is being examined is does having the Duke of Gloucester visit a pensioner group in New Castle increase or sustain the British Royal Family's relevance and affection? What about his work with his patronages? Now ask the same question for more visible non-heir royals like Princess Anne or Prince Edward.
If it turns out that bread and butter visits and support of patronages add materially to the BRF's relevance and affection, and the work is beyond the capacity of the monarch and the heir, then yes, other royals will be conscripted to help out as older royals pass away, reduce their activities or retire.
If needed, I can see Princess Beatrice being asked to take on royal duties, as opposed to Prince Harry being asked to return to royal duties. Even though it is expected for Charles to be the next monarch, serious consideration has to be given to laying the groundwork for William's reign, ergo, it does not matter if Charles has issues with Andrew and thinks his daughter is a twit, what William feels he needs during his reign is paramount.
Again, this is an "if needed" scenario, if the research supports that the British Royal Family's can sustain relevance and affection with it only being the monarch, heir and their spouses being working royals, then that makes things rather simple.
Now back to the money. Right now the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall provide income to their respective Dukes. There is no requirement that these funds be used to fund royal work but that has been exactly what has been happening for decades, and the BRF has made this known and used it for their own PR purposes. It will be interesting to see what the blow-back will be when it sinks in that one of the byproducts of a slimmed down monarchy is likely to be an increase in the personal wealth of the monarch and heir. My guess is that, assuming that the BRF has competent image management, that the monarch and heir will weather any blow-back and no restructuring of the duchy income scheme will be undertaken, especially since that will be a very complicated, if not, futile endeavor. I do foresee that the Sovereign Grant will be examined and restructured due to there being far fewer working royals, although it should be noted that the Sovereign Grant does fund more that just royal work.
