The £500 million Northern Estate programme has been scrapped, placing AHMM’s plans to convert Richmond House into a pop-up parliament in jeopardy, Building Design can reveal.

Confirmation of the decision was made in a letter from Sarah Johnson, chief executive of the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body, and David Goldstone, chief executive of the Delivery Authority, to Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

The letter, published yesterday after a request by Building Design but written last week, states: “In relation to the Northern Estate Programme, Mr Speaker wrote to Liz Peace [chair of the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body] on 16 November 2020. The letter informed the R&R Programme of the closure of the Northern Estate Programme, in favour of a new approach of having a more agile set of projects.”

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