Parliament prone to burning down as plans to repair up constructing drag on for years
Parliament is still at risk of being entirely destroyed by fire, as plans to fix up the centuries old building drag on for years.
The crumbling Palace of Westminster is classified as “people safe” under fire inspections – meaning officials would be able to evacuate everyone in the building safely if a fire broke out.
But it can’t be given “building safe” status, because it has a basement that runs the whole length of the building and isn’t split into sections in the way modern buildings are.
The basement, originally designed to be a ventilation system, is now home to hundreds of miles of pipes and cables that have been installed one on top of the other over the decades.
Staff have to walk single file and duck to get down basement corridors that were eight feet wide and eight feet tall when they were built, because of the ever encroaching patchwork of equipment.
Elsewhere emergency nets have had to be installed to prevent crumbling masonry, damaged by hundreds of years of weather, pollution and smog falling from Parliament’s iconic towers onto pedestrians below.
After a string of delays, a panel of MPs, peers and officials will finally decide the next steps in the refurbishment plan – which is likely to take years and cost tens of billions – early next year.
In the meantime, piecemeal repairs and maintenance to the building are costing taxpayers more than a million pounds a week.
MPs will choose between three options – moving both the Commons and the Lords out to other buildings nearby during the work, moving just the Lords out, and keeping both houses operating in the building throughout the whole process.
Keeping one or both houses in place would take dramatically longer and send costs skyrocketing yet further.
Estimates of the cost presented to Parliament in 2022 put the cost between £7 billion and £13 billion – and the process could take more than 20 years. And after two years of rampant inflation, the cost is likely to be even higher by the time MPs finally decide what to do.
The FDA union, which represents public service workers including many Parliament staff, has called for the “full decant” option to be fast-tracked for the safety of their members.
“We cannot afford to wait until 2025 to deliver a final decision on the restoration and renewal of the parliamentary estate. We have known what options are available for years,” Jawad Raza, the FDA National officer for Parliament said in March.
“A full decant of the estate is not only the preferred option for all parliamentary staff, but all independent reports agree a full decant is the safest, quickest, and most cost-effective way to make parliament safe for staff and visitors.
“Every other measure fails to adequately address safety, security, and evacuation. The strategic case admits that the health and safety of staff and visitors will be significantly higher if a partial decant is pursued. We cannot wait for catastrophe to occur.”
