The most recent estimate is that the R&R project will cost between £7 and £22 billion and take between 12 and 76 years to complete.
These numbers were produced as part of the R&R Sponsor Body's Strategic Review completed in 2021. The very broad range of costs derives from the three options set out in the report: full decant, partial decant and no decant at all.
In 2020 the House of Commons Commission asked the R&R Sponsor Body to look at whether ‘full decant’ which had been agreed by Parliament in 2018 (whereby MPs and Peers would temporarily relocate whilst the repair work to the Palace was undertaken) was “still the ‘best and most cost-effective’ option”.
The reasons given for this Review were the deteriorating economic climate due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the significant changes to the composition of the House of Commons following the 2018 General Election.
The Review found that a 'continued presence' by MPs on site would significantly increase the length of time it would take to complete the work and therefore the cost of doing so.
The Strategic Review examined three options and concluded:
a full decant would cost £7-£13 billion and take between 19 and 28 years, with a decant period within that of between 12 and 20 years;
a partial decant would cos £9.5-£18.5 billion and take between 26 and 43 years;
and no decant would cost £11-£22 billion and take between 46 and 76 years.
Prior to the 2021 report the only costs available were those published as part of the initial Independent Options Appraisal process in 2014. These 'estimates of the broad orders of magnitude' suggested that the repairs could be done for £3.8 billion (though this only was at a confidence interval of 50%) if the Palace estate was vacated for much of the work.
R&R is the most complex renovation programme of any single building ever undertaken in the UK and it is the biggest heritage restoration project of its kind anywhere in the world.
At 34 acres the Palace site has a footplate equivalent to around 16 full-size football pitches. All the core mechanical and electrical systems - heating, ventilation, drainage, and electrics - have outlived their lifespan and asbestos is found throughout the estate.
The Palace of Westminster comprises around 1,100 rooms; 7,800 windows [4,000 of them bronze]; 7000 roof tiles; 715 kilometres of wiring; 17 kilometres of pipes; 3 miles of passageways; and 100 staircases across 4 floors and 65 different levels.
There is one mechanical and engineering (M&E) system serving the whole of the Palace making it difficult to replace them without causing immense disruption across the estate. In 2021 Buro Happold, a specialist M&E engineering company concluded that:
'whilst it is technically possible to deliver the essential mechanical and electrical systems renewal without fully vacating the Palace, doing so would import an 'extraordinary level of risk', with works estimated to cost far more compared to full vacation of the Palace, take decades to deliver, and cause very significant disruption to the operation of Parliament.'
Latest estimates suggest asbestos has been found in 2,500 locations, on pipes, lagging, paint and many void areas. R&R officials estimate that is is the biggest location of asbestos in a single building anywhere in the UK and that it will need approximately 300 people for around two and a half years to address it.
Running repairs have been costing approximately £2 million per week and it is estimated that a further £1 billion is needed to address the repair backlog.
Although most people accept the need for major restoration works to the Palace, after decades of neglect there are no good options to choose from.
Concerns coalesce around the overall cost to the public purse, and the extent to which this represents value for money; the length of time that MPs must leave the parliamentary estate, if they do so at all, and the implications of that for the cost and duration of the works; the length of time before any core works will begin; and to what extent the building should be 'future-proofed'.
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Political Interests - MPs are unwilling to move out of the Palace – even though successive reports have shown this is the cheapest and quickest option.
Political short-termism: Parliament cannot bind its successor - there is an inability to make a decision stick. Decisions are subject to change every time there is an election or even a ministerial reshuffle. The lifespan of the R&R project is much longer than ministerial careers, and most MPs' time in Parliament.
Magical thinking – power without responsibility - MPs do not want to confront the reality that there are no good options on the table, so they call for yet another review in the hope of finding a different answer. But the answers in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 and 2021 have all been broadly the same. Not wanting to spend money on the Palace of Westminster will not make the essential repairs cheaper or, indeed, less essential.
Lack of vision - there are divisions about whether the project should be limited to repairing and replacing failing parts of the building and its supporting technical systems or be more ambitious in also future proofing the building as the home of a functioning democratic legislature for the next 100 years or more.
The last time we faced an opportunity on this scale was after the great fire when Parliament was rebuilt between 1835 and 1870. This is not a once in a decade, or a once in a generation moment, it’s a once in 150 year opportunity to transform the leading institution of our democracy and its environs, revitalising the democratic space to support a legislature fit for the 21st century. If work is to be done on this scale and at this cost it would be a lost opportunity if all that is done is to fix the roof, the wiring, and the asbestos.
In 2022 a Joint Report by the House of Commons and House of Lords Commissions recommended a new two-tier governance structure.
A Client Board comprising 24 members of the Commissions of the two Houses is chaired by the Commons Speaker. Its role is to make strategic choices and recommendations about the direction of the project. Operational leadership lies with the R& R Programme Board which oversees delivery of the project by the R&R Delivery Authority.
Parliament legislated in 2019 to set up independent governance bodies – the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body and the R&R Delivery Authority – to reduce the prospect of political interference in, and micro-management of, the R&R Programme. This governance model was predicated on lessons learned from other major infrastructure delivery projects, most notably the London 2021 Olympic Games.
In February 2022 the Commissions of both Houses reported that 'confidence within Parliament in the existing governance structure had been lost to such an extent that change is necessary'. The Commissions sought independent advice and assurance – via an 'Independent Advice and Assurance Panel' - on their proposed new approach to the works and the proposed new governance arrangements.
In July 2022 MPs and Peer agreed to change the governance arrangements – less than three years after they came into existence – bringing the project back under the overall control of parliamentarians.
The Client Board's role is to make critical choices and recommendations including reviewing the strategic case for the Programme and the proposals being laid before the two Houses for their endorsement. This Board consists of members of the two Commissions, with the addition of the Clerk of the Parliament and Chief Operational Officer in the House of Lords (who unlike the Clerk of the House in the Commons are not lay members of the House of Lords Commission).
The two Commissions have agreed that the R&R programme of works should initially focus on four priority areas:
fire safety and protection;
replacement of mechanical, electrical, drainage and plumbing, and data and communications systems;
asbestos management and wider health and safety issues;
conservation of the building fabric including stonework.
The Programme Board has delegated authority from the R&R Client Board. Its sole purpose is 'the direction and oversight of the [R&R] programme'. It aims to bring together parliamentarians and lay members with the necessary skills and expertise for such a major project. The Board is 'expected to engage, inform, mediate, and translate between Parliament and the Delivery Authority.'
The Delivery Authority is responsible for developing and delivering the work to the scope, budget and timescale agreed by both Houses of Parliament. The body comprises teams of architects, engineers, project managers and contractors. Their key task is to develop a range of options for how significant elements of the refurbishment work will be delivered including variations on the time and extent to which Members and staff are asked to move out of the Palace to allow the most disruptive and complex construction works to take place.
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The first detailed study of a range of scenarios for carrying out a major restoration programme was undertaken over an 18 month period by a team of consultants led by Deloitte. The report set out three possible delivery options: a rolling programme of works over a prolonged period, a partial decant or a full decant (move out).
The Independent Options Appraisal laid out a range of possible scenarios for the restoration work, from a 'do the minimum' approach at one end of the spectrum to significant improvements achieved in a single intensive phase of work at the other. The report identified that:
a full decant of all Members and staff from the Palace, enabling the estate to be vacated while works were undertaken over a concentrated period of time, would mean a project duration of approximately six years;
a partial decant, during which each House in turn would move to a temporary location to return only when the work was complete, was estimated to take approximately 11 years; and
a rolling programe of works over an extended period of time , lasting potentially up to 32 years.
A Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster was formed in July 2015 to consider the recommendations arising from the Independent Options Appraisal and to recommend a preferred way forward.
The Committee was comprised of 12 members. It was co-chaired by the Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling MP and the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Stowell of Beeston.
The five members drawn from the Commons were: Chris Bryant MP, Neil Gray MP, Ian Paisley MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP and Mark Tami MP.
In the Upper House, the members were: Lord Carter of Coles, Lord Deighton, Lord Laming, Baroness Smith of Basildon and Lord Wallace of Tankerness.
Just two of the 12 Committee members were female. Throughout the life of the R&R project, there has been a significant gender imbalance in representation on key committees.
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