Westminster to cost £14bn to repair – enough to keep Senedd running for over 220 years
The Palace of Westminster is to cost £14bn to repair, it has been revealed – enough to keep the Senedd running for over 220 years.
The plan to fix the Westminster Parliament will be announced in the New Year and will see MPs moving out for 20 years while the repairs to the Victorian building are completed.
The £14bn price tag compares to the £62.914m cost of running the Welsh Parliament during the 2021-22 term.
It is also over half the £22bn available to the Welsh Government to spend on everything from the Covid response, NHS in Wales, local government to education for the entirety of the 2022-23 financial year.
MPs were originally told the work to the Westminster Parliament would take only six years and cost about £4 billion.
Maintenance costs on the building alone currently cost £127m a year. The electrics, gas, water, heating and sewerage, all of which date from the 1880s would need to be replaced.
The Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, told the Times newspaper, which revealed the figures, that he would be “concerned if these figures are accurate”.
“It’s very important that the palace is restored but it has to be one providing value for taxpayers and there should be no gold-plating of the works,” he said.
There will be an opportunity in 2023 for MPs to vote on proposals for the refurbishment, which is due to start in 2027.
The UK Government said: “The Palace of Westminster must be safeguarded for future generations as the home of the UK’s democracy, but when parliament takes its final decision on how to proceed it must be clear — as the government has been throughout — that it will provide value for money for the taxpayer.”
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Bargain!!! :/
Another Tory vanity project, along with the £110 Billion for HS2, £37 Billion for the failed Covid app, now £14 Billion for a face lift, but remember, they have no money for NHS staff pay rise, can not afford food for English children during holiday time, and a report in the Times says the plan to get rid of up to 49 thousand civil servants. Where are their priorities?
It might be more sensible and cheaper, but unlikely with this kind of Tory Government, to build a new Parliament somewhere near the NEC in the Midlands. They could then have an English Assembly meeting somewhere in London. That might deflate the current wave of English (Fascist) nationalism that seems to be destroying the UK. The Westminster building could then become a revenue earning tourist destination.
I agree, the current building is a Victorian fantasy about how the ‘British’ state should be structured i.e. with an opulent House of Lords and a relatively austere House of Commons. This reflected the fact that at the time it was built the the Monarchy and the House of Lords were still considered more important than the House of Commons (only a very small minority of men had the right to vote at the time it was built). The best thing (for the English) would be to build a new single-chamber parliament (i.e. scrap the House of Lords), perhaps in… Read more »
I believe some English democrats would like to move it to York. It’s an uphill struggle, but lots are as fed with Westminster as we are. Well, almost……….
Time to boot the tory enemy out and declare a caring, competent Welsh republic.
Great to highlight this let’s keep pushing this narrative da iawn Nation.Cymru
These figures if accurate should precipitate a review of the entire project plan. We need to separate out the heritage function of the Parliament estate from its practical function at the heart of our democracy and ask ourself the question should we protect the heritage element whilst also creating a functional new location for our democratic needs.
Would this actually be a more cost-effective solution?
The planet is dying and what better way to spend insane amounts of money than repairing a historic government building in London? Also one on a flood plain. At least the English parliament building will be protected by the new Thames barrage. Ours will eventually just get a ferry boat service if we are lucky. Where did this this Welsh tradition to build new public buildings, major sporting venues, major town centres , large new housing estates and major industrial sites on flood planes come from? I presume it was because the land was cheap and mysteriously not yet used… Read more »
Don’t forget the billion per week on subsidised food and travel.
This vulgarity of British Unionism makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.
Where’s our Welsh Conservative quislings when it comes to criticism of this obscene expenditure? Nowhere to be seen.
In Wales our infrastructure is non-existent. A 3rd of country is so impoverished we qualify for structural funding still even though allegedly part of the 5th largest economy in the world. Foodbanks are now the norm, and £14 billion is to be spent on this edifice, some say orifice, in London.
If this doesn’t increase support for Welsh independence, I don’t know what will?
#YesCymru 🏴 #Ymlaen 🏴
We in wales have got to stop being little Englanders and be proud to be welsh kick all English party’s out of wales 🏴 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴 it’s time for a new wales 🏴 get the people in your town’s out voting for new wales 🏴 it’s time for a new Free Wales Army to sort out second homes in wales 🏴
A major problem is 21% are literally Englanders.
Another is we have lived as an abused ‘partner’ for centuries so the default belief by many a Cymro/eas is we cannot survive on our own and the abuse shows they love us?
One of the things you find with old buildings like this is that once you start the work you find other things that need to be done. These changes then need to get permission from the relevant authorities. This adds time and extra costs, so one of the few things we can say with any certainty is that the project will cost a minimum of £14bn and probably a lot more. So, strap your self in for a bumpy ride underwritten by the tax payers in all the countries of the Union!