So, fancy renting Holyrood? No thanks!

HOLYROOD chiefs have lost nearly £10,000 so far in a failed attempt to bring in extra revenue for the Scottish parliament.

They hoped they had found a money-spinner by renting out parts of the property for dinners, receptions, conferences and seminars.

But they ended up making a loss due to lack of interest in using the £414million building on days when parliament is not sitting, at a cost of £1,250 for the members’ restaurant or £1,500 for the garden lobby.

Since the scheme was introduced in 2016, only £116,389 has been made, set against a total cost of £127,138, making an overall loss of £10,749.

There have been only two events in the current financial

‘Can’t be allowed to continue’

year and, while five further bookings are expected to reduce the deficit to £7,500, the venture remains a financial failure and is due to be abandoned at the end of September.

Yesterday Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Clearly the business case for using our nation’s parliament for commercial events was not sound.

‘Taxpayers will be rightly concerned that their money has subsidised corporate ventures in parliament. Everyone makes mistakes, but this cannot be allowed to continue.’

Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said: ‘Many will be surprised that interest in using the parliament building as a venue for corporate events has been so limited.’

A report this week to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body stated: ‘There is no obvious reason why the actual pickup was less than anticipated.’