A new parliament in an old palace: where next for the Restoration and Renewal programme? 

Following the overall election, an unusually massive variety of MPs entered parliament for the primary time, however the constructing that they are going to be working in is in severe want of restore. Alex Meakin outlines how the earlier parliament approached the issue of restoring and rebuilding a parliamentary property that’s in growing want of significant work to make it a protected and efficient venue for the UK’s legislators. She concludes that the sheer price of the challenge will act as a deterrent to robust motion, however that additional delay will possible solely enhance that price, and will consequence within the lack of the Palace of Westminster as a working constructing altogether.

A number of months into the post-election parliament, the 335 MPs who had been sworn in for the very first time are beginning to discover their means spherical their new office, navigating a constructing masking the identical space as 16 soccer pitches, throughout 65 completely different ranges. Together with their returning colleagues, the 2024 cohort will quickly be requested to resolve on the way forward for the Palace of Westminster: a choice which has the potential to form the tradition of the legislature for his or her successors. 

Because the newly-elected MPs are discovering, behind the magnificent mock-Gothic exterior of the palace lies a constructing in disrepair. Home windows that can’t be closed, mice working alongside the lengthy corridors, and leaking pipes and bogs are all proof of the most important refurbishment the palace requires. Far better proof is hidden behind the partitions and inside the basement of the constructing, the place the important mechanical and electrical companies — which give the required energy, air flow, communications, and heating to the constructing — at the moment are a long time previous their anticipated lifespan. Their situation leaves the constructing vulnerable to a catastrophic occasion, resembling a hearth or flood, which may threat lives in addition to the way forward for the palace.  

For returning MPs, this isn’t new data. Issues concerning the situation of the palace and the necessity for main repairs date again to the flip of the century, and it’s now greater than eight years because the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster cautioned that: 

The Palace of Westminster, a masterpiece of Victorian and medieval structure and engineering, faces an impending disaster which we can not responsibly ignore […] Except an intensive programme of main remedial work is undertaken quickly, it’s possible that the constructing will change into uninhabitable.

Within the years following the 2016 report, parliament made sluggish and stuttering progress in direction of this intensive programme of main remedial work, often known as the Restoration and Renewal (R&R) of the Palace of Westminster. Enormous steps ahead had been made with the approval of the R&R programme in 2018 and the passing of the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019. However throughout the 2019-2024 parliament, this progress stalled, with a number of evaluations of the programme, modifications to the governance preparations, and prolonged delays. Selections made beforehand — such because the dedication to a full decant, the place MPs and friends would transfer out quickly to permit the repairs to happen — had been reopened, that means that when parliament was dissolved in Could 2024, the prospect of spades within the floor was even additional away than when the Queen had opened parliament after the 2019 normal election.  

The place are we now? 

There was no proof of enthusiasm from the incoming authorities for the R&R programme, or the potential to alter the parliamentary constructing. The problem was not talked about within the Labour manifesto, nor have the brand new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, or Chief of the Home of Commons Lucy Powell, made any commitments. Certainly, Powell’s response to a parliamentary query which requested if she deliberate to ‘to amend the Restoration and Renewal (a) finances, (b) timetable and (c) decant coverage’, actively averted taking a place: 

The Restoration and Renewal Programme is a matter for Parliament. The Parliamentary Shopper Board agreed the strategic route of the Programme in February and anticipate costed proposals for 3 choices (together with full decant, continued presence and enhanced upkeep and enchancment) to be put to members in 2025, enabling the Programme to progress. 

Whereas the way forward for R&R is certainly a matter for parliament, it’s value noting that the unique governance preparations for the challenge sought to position this management in an unbiased organisation, believing this to be the easiest way to ‘ship a worth for cash programme, which instructions the boldness of taxpayers and Parliamentarians’. This construction was meant to minimise the dangers of ‘incomplete or ambiguous definition of the temporary, altering the scope part-way by means of the challenge, lack of continuity in governance, [and] modifications within the political context’. In 2022 parliament took again management of R&R, however this 12 months’s election has supplied an instance of why this will threat continuity in governance. The R&R Programme Board, which ‘is accountable to direct and have oversight of the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster’, had been chaired by Nigel Evans as a part of his duties as Deputy Speaker, with Penny Mordaunt additionally an ex officio member because the then Chief of the Commons — neither had been re-elected as MPs at July’s normal election. The R&R Shopper Board, which is ‘liable for making crucial strategic decisions and proposals regarding the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster’, has confronted even better turnover, with 4 of its seven Commons members not returning to parliament. The 2 boards are but to be arrange after the election, so there could also be much more turnover, as a result of MPs taking on completely different parliamentary or ministerial roles.  

Powell’s reference to the work underway (by the R&R Supply Authority) to price choices for the required work presents hope that the election, regardless of the numerous turnover within the Commons, won’t additional push again choices on R&R. The Strategic Case for R&R, printed in March 2024, burdened the idea of MPs and the general public that the Palace ‘ought to be restored and guarded for future generations’. That is welcome, however every week of delay is dear: each in monetary phrases, with £1.45 million spent per week simply to maintain the Palace working, but in addition by way of the chance to the constructing. In 2023 the then Clerk of the Home of Commons, John Benger, warned of the hazard of additional delays: 

if we simply wait and wait, and defer and defer, finally there might be catastrophic and irreversible harm to the Palace, which is a part of a UNESCO world heritage website. I’m very clear about that.

Whereas the dangers of failing to behave have been made clear, there are lots of the explanation why MPs (and it’s primarily MPs, somewhat than friends) have been unwilling to push ahead with R&R. The unwillingness to satisfy in one other venue throughout repairs and the potential for modifications to a constructing they love so dearly are two such components. Even better, nonetheless, is the price of the challenge, which may attain as much as £37 billion (if parliamentarians insist on remaining within the constructing throughout works). Whereas it may be hoped that Meg Hillier (who spearheaded Commons scrutiny of R&R as chair of the Public Accounts Committee) will proceed to flag the dangers of not appearing on the state of the palace, in her new function as Chair of the Treasury Committee, the upfront price of R&R could also be nearly unattainable for MPs to decide to, particularly within the context of cuts to the Winter Gasoline Allowance for pensioners. The irony, in fact, is that the prices have elevated to such a degree partly due to earlier a long time of delay and indecision. Additional, the prices of R&R might be dwarfed by the price of rebuilding parliament after the inevitable disaster—which, in fact, might be accompanied by the devastation of dropping an iconic a part of UK identification and a worldwide image of democracy.  

That is the dilemma that might be confronted by MPs in 2025 once they resolve on the way forward for their office. It will likely be fascinating to see how their expertise of mice and leaks — to not point out the shameful lack of entry for disabled individuals — will form their determination.   

Concerning the creator

Dr Alexandra Meakin is Lecturer in British Politics on the College of Leeds.

Featured picture: Elimination of forged iron roof elements – Massive Ben (CC BY-NC 2.0) by UK Parliament.