MPs are rebelling against proposals to move out of the The Houses of Parliament for an expected five to eight years while a £3.5bn restoration programme is carried out.
Chris Bryant, MP and member of the restoration committee, told The Times yesterday that the rebellion risked delaying the project, adding to the cost and putting the building at risk.
Under the original plan drawn up by MPs, peers and consultants Deloitte, the whole of parliament would move out in 2023.
It has been suggested that if MPs and peers stayed, the work would take far longer and cost £6bn.
Today the Treasury select committee will begin a formal inquiry into the original proposal after Andrew Tyrie, its chairman, questioned whether the “huge expenditure and over such a short time frame is necessary”.
Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP and former chairman of the public accounts committee, has called the proposal for an £85m temporary Commons to be built in Richmond House “dotty”. He has drawn up a plan for MPs to sit in the House of Lords as they did during the Second Word War after the Commons was bombed.
Writing for The Times’ Red Box political briefing, Bryant said: “If we try to patch and mend as we have done for so many years, we will incur unnecessary risks and costs, whilst a failure of the high pressure drainage system or a release of asbestos fibres into the air conditioning could easily close the whole palace immediately and indefinitely. A small electrical fire in any one of the 98 risers could rapidly and uncontrollably spread to the rest of the building.
“If we get this wrong or if we delay too long, we could lose our most iconic national building, a symbol of British democracy and the rule of law, just when we are leaving the EU.”
Image: Mairead/Dreamstime.com
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Move parliament to the poorest region of the country and let out the HoP on a long lease to the highest bidding developer to use as high end accommodation / hotel / office space. This should generate an overall profit of many millions!
Sir Edward Leigh has a point and one that should be seriously considered. Already the cost of this project is too high and adding further costs by building a temporary Commons would not garner much support from the voters.
Most of the time the Commons is largely unpopulated with MPs as the majority of discussions do not require a full attendance.
The first place to start with this is to identify actual attendance figures of MPs and support staff to assess whether or not a new building can be justified or whether the temporary use of the House of Lords would suffice.
Perfect location would be adjacent to the HS2 interchange in Solihull. In the middle of the UK with road, rail and air links on its doorstep. Would massively add to the business case for HS2 and rebalance the UK economy. Lets look forward to the 21st century, not backward to the 18th.