Crown Jewels price

Brand Finance’s Jubilee Report 2012, published this week to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, concludes: “The Monarchy is a powerful endorsement for individual and company brands and for the nation brand. We believe that it is making a significant contribution to the task of driving Britain out of recession.”

The report adds: “Monarchy is more than a historical throwback to the days of the British Empire but a much-needed impetus for economic growth in the United Kingdom.”

The findings will counter concerns that the extra day’s bank holiday on Tuesday June 5 will hinder attempts to drag Britain out of recession.

The report analyses the Royal family as if it were a company, examining its physical assets as well as its wider impact on the UK economy.

The report takes into account all the assets associated with the monarchy, including the Royal collection of art works and the Crown Estate properties such as Regent Street, and puts a value on them.

Brand Finance then adds on top what it calls “intangible assets” — including the boost that it says the Royal family brings to Britain through tourism and free advertising overseas.

The consultancy even puts a value on the system that allows about 800 companies, including the likes of Fortnum & Mason, John Lewis and Weetabix, to use Royal Warrants. The report estimates that Royal warrants are worth £4  billion to the companies that get the “The Firm’s” seal of approval.

David Haigh, Brand Finance’s chief executive, writing in the report’s introduction, said: “[The Monarchy] is one of the most valuable of all British brands. Whatever one thinks about the constitutional principle, there seems little doubt that the institution of monarchy adds significant annual earnings and long-term economic value to the UK.”

According to the research, the bulk of the £18.1 billion of “tangible assets” comprises the Crown Estate, valued at £7 billion, and the Royal Collection, priced at £10 billion. On top of that it values the Duchy of Cornwall estate at £729 million and the Duchy of Lancaster at £383 million.

The intangible benefits of the Monarchy are clearly harder to put a value on and the analysis will inevitably stir debate.

A Brand Finance spokesman said its estimates were based on what it called “the uplift to the economy attributable to the monarchy”.

The report reckons that the Royal family’s contribution to tourism is worth an extra £500 million each year to the British economy — which Brand Finance converts into an “intangible asset in perpetuity” of more than £16 billion.

On top of that there is an estimated £8.3 billion value attached to the revenue that the Crown Estate properties bring in; an advertising value of more than £4 billion for all the free publicity the Royal family receives overseas; and a further £4 billion value put on Royal Warrants.

The £34 billion “intangible asset value” of the monarchy is offset by an estimated £7.6 billion worth of costs. These include a long-term security bill of a little over £3.3 billion, while any potential buyer of “The Firm” would be saddled, according to Brand Finance, with Civil List costs estimated at £461 million and travel at £195 million.

But all that is offset by the economic boost to the UK, which the report claims is massively increased by such events as last year’s Royal Wedding and this year’s Diamond Jubilee, even taking into account the extra bank holidays and the work lost on those days.

The report states: “When special one-off events … are taken into consideration, the benefit for the economy is enormous.

“Novelty mugs and tea towels aside, the public relations benefits generated through the world’s intense interest in the Royal family are equally significant … The value of what is essentially free publicity for the United Kingdom when considered in the long term, is enormous.

“The halo effect which results from the pageantry and history it represents, is something which is leveraged effectively by numerous brands, as well as the Monarchy itself, to provide a boost to both the economy and the brand of the United Kingdom currently valued at £44 billion.”