York is a ‘feasible choice’ for House of Lords relocation

DOWNING STREET is holding talks with developers about moving the House of Lords to York after the Prime Minister’s chief of staff identified it as a “feasible choice” for the relocation.

Sir Eddie Lister is understood to have backed plans for the upper House to be relocated to a 111-acre site in York which is controlled by a partnership including Homes England, the agency he chaired until joining No10 last year.

Boris Johnson’s aides are now holding detailed discussions about constructing a chamber on the site, along with office space for staff, and a possible summit venue for when parliamentarians decamp from the Palace of Westminster in 2025 for long-planned restoration works.

The move is likely to alarm peers who had made light of the suggestion that Mr Johnson could move the upper House outside London, when it was first reported last month.

Mr Johnson ordered his advisers to examine the possibility of moving the chamber outside of London as part of an effort to demonstrate that he was serious about “refocusing attention and investment” away from the capital. In recent weeks, Sir Eddie has examined the possibility of moving the chamber to Birmingham and York, both of which were identified partly on the basis that they could be reached from London in two hours. But the northern city is seen as the “feasible choice” after Mr Johnson’s chief of staff visited the York Central site along with Cabinet Office officials on Jan 31.

The site, adjacent to York station, is one of the largest brownfield sites in England and is earmarked for 2,500 new homes.

Sir Eddie has been drawn to York Central because it has already received outline planning permission for largescale development. Mr Johnson’s advisers believe that the city provides a “suitable character” for hosting a parliamentary chamber, given that it was the historic capital of the North.

Last week, Neil Ferris, the City of York council’s director of economy and place, told a council committee: “The only thing I would say in respect of the House of Lords is that officers weren’t aware of the proposal – but we understand that the Government are seriously looking at it.

“Whether or not it has any mileage is a matter for the Government.”