David Cameron is said to be balking at plans for MPs to leave the Palace of Westminster during a six-year, £3.5bn Westminster refurbishment. While no concrete plans have been made, the Prime Minister is said to fear a backlash when full details of the plans emerge.
The Palace of Westminster has long been in need of major repairs, and a parliamentary committee – the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster – is set to recommend that MPs relocate to another building while the work is carried out.
Politicians have delayed making the decision of how to renovate the Houses of Parliament for more than a decade, and the Prime Minister is said to believe that in the current climate of austerity and cuts to public services, the public wouldn’t accept such a costly measure.
An independent report conducted by Deloitte said that there were three main refurbishment options for Parliament to choose from:
- Moving all the people out of the Palace of Westminster while the refurbishment is carried out (the full decant)
- relocating different groups in stages (the partial decant)
- rolling programme of refurbishment (the no decant)
They said that the full decant is the cheapest and quickest of the options.
In light of this, and their other deliberations, the parliamentary committee is set to recommend MPs relocating due to the lower costs involved in the project than attempting renovations while MPs are still working in the building, but this option isn’t favoured by all.
The Prime Minister and other senior government figures are said to be worried about the costs of the project and the public perception of a major Westminster refurbishment project.
The mostly likely destination for MPs to relocate to has long been thought of as the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, just across Parliament Square. But some have suggested even more radical plans, such as moving Parliament to cities other than London. These plans aren’t mainstream and are unlikely to gain any traction.
The committee’s announcement of their decision is likely to come over the next few months.
Photo credit: flickr/pahudson – Creative Commons