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Palace of Westminster ‘deteriorating faster than it can be fixed’

The Palace of Westminster (Image: Dreamstime/Tomas1111)

The restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster is of “paramount importance” as the cost of maintenance continues to rise and the building is “now deteriorating faster than it can be fixed”.

That’s according to a strategic review conducted by the ‘sponsor body’ overseeing the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal programme.

The report revealed that the cost of maintenance was £369m in the four years since 2015, and £127m in 2018/9 alone.

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It said: “As the Public Accounts Committee noted in their October 2020 report on the programme, significant and timely action is needed to protect the Palace and all those who work in it.”

The review has also confirmed that MPs will need to be relocated to Parliament’s northern estate and peers to temporary accommodation at the QEII Conference Centre. The report said that even if the programme took a “do minimum” scope, work to the 150-year-old building would cause major disruption to Parliament and take several years to deliver.

The restoration team will now continue to develop a costed plan for the programme of works, expected to create thousands of jobs and apprenticeships across the UK in industries such as digital design and engineering as well as traditional crafts including carpentry and stonemasonry.

The work will include more than 100 investigative surveys, with specialist teams analysing 1,100 rooms and more than 3,000 windows. The team will also work with Parliament to determine the functions the building needs to have in future as well as improvements in areas like accessibility.

The plan could also see a dry dock erected alongside the Palace, giving engineers better access to the full length of the building.

The restoration plan will be submitted to Parliament for final approval. Work is expected to begin on the Palace of Westminster in the mid 2020s.

Sarah Johnson, chief executive of the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body, said: “The iconic home of Parliament is in urgent need of restoration. The review has found new ways of carrying out the complex project, focused on getting value for money, and we will continue preparing a detailed and costed restoration and renewal plan that will for the first time give Parliament a true sense of the costs and timescales of restoring the Palace of Westminster.”

David Goldstone, chief executive of the Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, said: “We are absolutely committed to getting on with the job, making sure we spend money effectively, focusing on the vital and essential work that needs doing to protect and restore the world-famous Palace of Westminster while supporting thousands of jobs nationwide.”