Watchdog committee says each year of delay on Parliament restoration costs £420m

Every year of delay on Palace of Westminster refurbishment costs £420m, according to a report from the public accounts committee.

The committee’s report highlights where further work is needed on the Restoration and Renewal programme, ahead of a vote on different options for conducting parliamentary business during works.

The delay to the vote on how to proceed, originally expected before Easter, has already cost the taxpayer up to £290m.

All of the options for moving forward depend on temporary accommodation being ready on time, the plan being for Commons to move to parliament’s Northern Estate and the Lords to the QE2 Conference Centre.

However, refurbishment of the first is delayed and acquisition of the first is taking longer than expected. The PAC report described these schedule issues as a “critical risk” to the programme and suggested the R&R project should be given overall charge of the decant process.

The report also found that engagement of the programme with parliamentarians had been insufficient, with the R&R Client Team having spoken with only 43% of MPs by June this year.

It called for a plan from the Clerks of both Houses of Parliament for future engagement.

“There has long been a political allergy to gripping the nettle that is R&R,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee. 

“I would urge all those who believe a decision on how to proceed should be further delayed to digest the figures in our report, showing each kick of the can down the road costs hundreds of millions in public money. They should then imagine the blow suffered by the UK’s morale and reputation of some kind of catastrophic failure.”

The PAC also suggested the creation of a dedicated R&R committee to provide proper scrutiny.