Osborne fury as MPs demand £4bn to save Houses of Parliament
Chancellor warns:‘ They had better think again’
MPs are demanding an extraordinary £4billion of taxpayers’ money to refurbish the Houses of Parliament, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
The huge sum – enough to build 200 secondary schools – is needed to correct ‘structural problems’, say MPs.
Chancellor George Osborne has been warned by Cabinet colleague Andrew Lansley, the Leader of the House, that a ‘capital spending bid’ running into ‘several billions of pounds’ is being prepared by the Palace authorities and will land on the Chancellor’s desk this autumn. Commons sources say the total amount demanded will be £4billion, with a further £1billion in a ‘contingency reserve’.
It is understood Mr Osborne reacted with fury when he was informed about the imminent demand, telling aides: ‘They had better think again.’
The whopping bill comes at a time when the Chancellor is insisting that his austerity meas- ures, including welfare cuts and public sector pay restraints, need to continue until at least 2018 to balance the books.
It also coincides with continuing public hostility towards MPs over their taxpayer-funded expenses claims and an 11 per cent pay hike promised after the 2015 Election.
However, a senior Commons source said last night: ‘There is no alternative to this. It sounds a lot, but it amounts to £400million a year over a decade, or £200million over two decades, depending on the timescale for the work, which is peanuts for the Treasury. We can’t just let the 1,000-year-old mother of all Parliaments fall into ruins.’
The row comes after surveyors hired by the House of Commons Commission – the group of MPs chaired by Speaker John Bercow that supervises its administration – found chronic subsidence in the building, partly linked to the digging of the London Underground Jubilee Line in the 1990s.
One report found that Big Ben is tilting 18in from the vertical, while cracks have appeared in the walls of the Palace.
Engineers fear the ancient piping system, including boilers dating from before the Second World War, is ‘ready to blow’, while the building is also suffering from electrical problems, fire risks and multiple safety hazards. They say there needs to be a staged shutdown, section by section, over ten to 20 years while the infrastructure is replaced.
The £4billion cost, which comes as MPs prepare to return this week for the State Opening of Parliament, would be enough to build 13 hospitals at £300mil- lion each. The Commons chamber itself also needs extensive work and at some point during the next Parliament will have to be shut for 18 months. MPs are expected to relocate to the Lords, with peers probably meeting in the QE2 conference centre opposite Westminster Abbey.
Building costs at the Commons have a history of overrunning. When Portcullis House, the office building for MPs, was designed in 1992, it was projected to cost £165million, but
‘A bid of that scale will not be approved’
by the time it was finished in 2001 the bill had spiralled to £235million.
A spokesman for Mr Lansley said: ‘These discussions are at a very early stage and the contractors have been asked to report back with more costeffective options.’
Last night a Treasury source said: ‘A bid of that scale will not be approved.’
A Commons spokesman said: ‘In 2012, a study on the condition of the Palace showed that unless significant restoration work is undertaken, irreversible damage may be done to the Grade I listed building. Both Houses agreed that doing nothing was not an option and asked for an independent appraisal of a range of options.
‘This appraisal is under way. The priority will be to ensure value for money for the taxpayer while safeguarding the heritage of the Palace. The decision will be taken in the next Parliament.’