Kemi Badenoch describes project as ‘out of control’ as report suggests work could cost £40bn and take 61 years
The Conservative Party has called for a “fundamental rethink” of the programme of works for the restoration and renewal of Parliament after a report suggested the job could cost £40bn and take 61 years to complete.
Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the project, which would include several newbuild public spaces under plans unveiled by its delivery authority earlier this month, was “out of control” and would turn the grade I-listed building into a “net zero Dubai hotel”.
Badenoch said the Conservatives would oppose the project in its current form when MPs and Lords make a decision on which two recommended options to take in a vote expected in 2030.
It is currently costing taxpayers around £1.5m a week to maintain the Houses of Parliament, which has not undergone a comprehensive refurbishment since 1950 and is becoming increasingly dangerous for occupants, with 36 fire incidents over the last decade.
The work would include a comprehensive replacement of the building’s antiquated services, cutting operational energy usage by 40%, increasing step-free access from the current 12% of floorspace to 60% and improving fire safety.
Major new public spaces including visitor entrance lobbies, circulation spaces and an education centre would also be built within the Victorian complex.
The delivery authority decided the scope of the works in 2023, choosing the second highest of six possible outcomes ranging from simple restoration works in priority areas to a “transformative” upgrade of the building.
Two delivery options have now been recommended for MPs, a “full decant” costing £15.6bn which would relocate most building occupants into temporary premises for up to 24 years, and an “enhanced maintenance and improvement plus” (EMI+) option which would only require a maximum of 30% of the building to be vacated but could cost up to £39.2bn and take 61 years.
The Conservative Party described the current status of the programme as “mission creep” which had suffered from “unclear oversight”.
It added that “a safety-led programme risks expanding into a wholesale transformation of the parliamentary estate, including extensive additional works beyond core structural remediation”.
The party has launched a public petition calling for Parliament to go “back to the drawing board” on the scheme and to refocus the works on essential fire safety and structural improvements.
Badenoch said: “Parliament’s restoration project is out of control, and the public should be as angry about it as I am.
“This was meant to be essential works to keep a cherished, historic building safe and functioning. It has turned into a basket case white elephant project.”
She added that plans to improve the building’s energy efficiency meant taxpayers were “being asked to bankroll billions more to turn the Palace of Westminster into a net zero Dubai hotel”.
Badenoch’s intervention comes after Create Streets founder Nicholas Boys Smith described the proposed restoration as a “scam, total scope-creep and utterly out of control” in a comment piece in The Times.
Boys Smith argued many of planned improvements to the Palace including the scale of the proposed accessibility and energy efficiency improvements were unnecessary and a “luxury this increasingly poor country can no longer afford”.
The Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority has been approached for comment.
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