Norman Foster has called on the government to launch an architectural competition to design a new House of Lords complex if ministers pursue proposals to relocate parliament’s upper chamber.

His proposals came in response to reports at the weekend that permanently moving peers to York or Birmingham was “one of a range of options” under consideration to “reconnect” politics with voters outside of the capital.

Foster, who sat in the Lords as Lord Foster of Thames Bank between 1999 and 2010 when he resigned following a change in tax laws, used a letter to The Times to argue that if peers were relocated to a new home that base should properly reflect the nation’s vision of the future.

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