Taxpayers Are Growing Impatient With Parliament's Restoration Delays
Restoring Parliament (Credit: Vuk Valcic / Alamy Stock Photo)
2 min read
Members of the public are growing increasingly impatient with delays to Parliament’s restoration and renewal programme, new polling suggests.
Opinion survey data seen by The House shows that 34 per cent of people are concerned the programme is taking longer to complete than originally planned, an increase from 30 per cent in 2021.
Overall costs and unexpected cost increases continue to be the biggest concerns when thinking about restoration and renewal (R&R) overall, with 42 per cent of people preferring works be delivered as quickly as possible, so reducing costs, and 30 per cent preferring work to be completed over a longer period of time and so increasing costs.
However, a document circulated to the Programme Board confirmed there is “significant uncertainty in both the amount and timing of costs” and acknowledged the risk is that “this activity shifts back rather than forward”.
A vote to confirm which options parliamentarians will choose from – either fully decanting from the estate or maintaining a continued presence while works continue – has been delayed to 2024, as the Client Board weighs up a controversial “patch and mend” fallback option, which would effectively render the R&R programme redundant.
However, while 55 per cent of the public favour a full decant, and 45 per cent a partial decant, the polling suggests the public are becoming more attuned to the safety threats posed by remaining, with 49 per cent of people aware of at least one issue facing the building, an increase from 45 per cent in 2021. Risks of fire, the presence of asbestos and falling masonry were ranked as the top safety concerns.
Conservative peer Lord Attlee, who has experience of large-scale refurbishments, recently asked in the Lords why remaining in Parliament while works continue was still being considered.
He said the reply from Lord Gardiner was “obviously skilfully drafted” but came from “pressure from certain members wanting to do partial decant”. He added: “My question was: why the hell are we wasting money thinking about partial decant when the professional advice is that it would be much more risky and much more expensive?”
Alexandra Meakin, politics lecturer at the University of Leeds, said: “Concerns about cost are understandable but should spur parliamentarians on to commit to the cheapest and quickest way to deliver the necessary work: moving out entirely of the Palace rather than trying to work from an asbestos-riddled building site for over 70 years.”
The survey was completed in November 2023 by 2,065 adults in the United Kingdom, constituting the sixth wave of R&R public polling.
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