Restoration and Renewal plans in flux again

The Palace of Westminster repairs programme has again been thrown into question after the House of Commons and House of Lords Commissions agreed to replace the Sponsor Body responsible for delivering the project. MPs and peers agreed in 2018 to plans which would have seen them decant to nearby Richmond

House – the first time they would have left their respective chambers since the Luftwaffe bombings in 1941.

The Sponsor Body – set up two years ago – reportedly prepared new estimates which would have seen costs rise to as much as £14bn and require MPs and peers to leave for 20 years.

A range of proposals was expected to be put before parliamentarians in 2023, with the beginning of works pencilled in for a start date in the mid-2020s.

Following a series of meetings earlier this month, it was decided the Sponsor Body would now be asked “pare down” its activities to focus on “essential work” while a decision is made on how to proceed.

It came amid growing concerns over the direction of the project, with then-Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg saying Parliament would be expected to “justify to the taxpayer” the cost of repairs.

Writing for The House, Conservative MP Sir

Edward Leigh, who sits on the Sponsor Body, said problems were “answered with the most expensive and invasive solution possible” including proposals to level the Grade II*-listed Richmond House to build an exact replica of the Commons Chamber rather than reducing the size of the voting lobbies “by the odd foot or two”.

However former Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, who helped draw up the original plans for a Sponsor

Body, said: “It is 100 per cent clear that decanting from the Palace is the safest and cheapest way to preserve this Unesco world heritage building – one of the most famous sights in the world. In scrapping the Sponsor Body the Commissions of both Houses will need to create a different oversight body – the work has to be done, and the urgency of it cannot be underestimated.”