Public-spending watchdog the National Audit Office has set out a litany of financial risks facing David Adjaye and Ron Arad’s controversial proposals for the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre at Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

According to the NAO, construction costs for the project – which had its planning permission quashed by the High Court in April – are now running at £102.9m, up 3% from the £99.7m full-business-case-figure one year ago, and up 16% on the £89m envisaged just three years ago. Annual operating costs for the memorial are estimated at up to £8m a year.

Project client the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is appealing the High Court’s decision, which found the consent granted to the proposals was a breach of a 1900 legal act protecting listed Victoria Tower Gardens. The NAO cautioned that further delays will push the project’s cost higher and said that securing planning permission was not the only obstacle faced by the department.

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