Plans to restore the deteriorating Palace of Westminster could cost £40 billion and take up to 61 years, according to a report by the body established to determine how the project should be managed.
Critics described the cost as “eye-watering” and claimed the project lacked accountability.
Members of Parliament and peers will have to decide between two new plans developed by the restoration and renewal client board, rather than the previously proposed four.
The first plan involves a “full decant”, with the House of Commons and the House of Lords moving out of the Palace of Westminster’s Northern Estate – outside the palace but nearby – and the Lords relocating to the nearby QEII conference centre starting in 2032. The board estimates this option would last 19 to 24 years and could cost up to £15.6 billion.
A “staged decant”, which would require the House of Lords to be vacated for 8 to 13 years while the Commons temporarily occupies the Lords Chamber for up to two years, could take 38 to 61 years and cost up to £39.2 billion.
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MPs and peers have also been asked to agree to an initial £3 billion for restoration works at the Houses of Parliament, which would include refurbishing the interior of the Victoria Tower, constructing a jetty on the Thames for river deliveries, and beginning underground tunnel shafts. The works are expected to last seven years and could start in 2026 if approved. The board will then request that they select between the final two options by mid-2030.
MPs, peers, and senior parliamentary officials are divided on the best approach to undertake the urgently needed repairs to the predominantly Victorian building, despite widespread concerns that aging wiring, asbestos, and unsafe masonry could lead to a catastrophic incident at the Unesco Westminster World Heritage Site.
The House of Lords has frequent heating failures, problems with its sewerage system and forced closure of toilets because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). Since 2016, there have been 36 fire incidents, 12 asbestos incidents and 19 stonemasonry incidents on the estate.
The report from the restoration board argues that the state of the Palace of Westminster has become critical, with £1.5m spent every week on maintenance and repairs. The number of maintenance jobs increased by 70% between 2021 and 2024.
But the shadow speaker of the house, Jesse Norman, warned that despite more than a decade of delays, key decisions were made behind closed doors with no individual or body held responsible for a budget “more appropriate to HS2 than to parliament”.
“The costed proposals report is asking parliamentarians to approve eye-watering expenditures […] on a project with unclear governance, limited scrutiny and low confidence of effective project or cost management,” he said. .
Norman, a member of the House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the palace’s maintenance, wrote to the board in December and criticised a proposal for a new three-board structure to oversee the project.
“It is not hard to see how this could increase bureaucracy, delay, dispersion of responsibility and confusion,” he said.
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