Parliament of the United Kingdom relocation

Several parties have argued for the relocation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from its current location at the Palace of Westminster, London to the English Midlands or Northern England, for economic, as well as democratic reasons.

A contributing factor in favour of relocating the Parliament is due to the extremely high cost of any restoration program.

Proposals

There has also been some interest of relocation to Manchester,[1] Kingston upon Hull,[2] Birmingham,[3] George Galloway has suggested Leeds as a new location.[4]

The Electoral Reform Society supports the idea of relocation, making a case for England's and Britain's demographic or geographic centres of gravity.

Current Position on Temporary Relocation & Restoration Program

October 2012 the House of Commons Commission issued a Bulletin stating: At its meeting on Monday 29 October, the House of Commons Commission considered an internal Study Group report on the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster. The Commission was united in taking very seriously its responsibilities for this iconic and much-loved Grade 1 listed building in a UNESCO world heritage site. It also expressed strong support for continuing to protect the health and safety of visitors, Members and staff. It is therefore of the unanimous view that doing nothing is not an option. Equally, the Commission is acutely conscious of the current public spending environment and is committed to ensuring that any consideration of how the Palace could be restored is based upon securing maximum value for taxpayers’ money. The report is a useful first analysis of the issues. However, the Commission has ruled out the option of constructing a brand new building away from Westminster and no further analysis will be undertaken on this option. In addition, the Commission was not persuaded that the case for a decant had been made, and wished to ensure that all options were rigorously tested by independent analysis, detailed costings and robust technical information, to ensure no suggestion of internal bias. Fulfilling their obligations as custodians of the Palace of Westminster requires informed, considered decision-making by both Houses of Parliament. A great deal of work remains to be done before Parliament is in a position even to consider the merits and demerits in principle of particular options. [5]

December 2015 Building.co.uk published: Nine firms and joint ventures have been shortlisted for two client advisory roles on the mammoth £6bn restoration of the Houses of Parliament. Allies and Morrison, BDP, Foster + Partners and HOK have been shortlisted for the architectural lot, while Aecom and Mace, Capita and Gleeds, CH2M, Arcadis and Turner & Townsend have been shortlisted for programme, project and cost management services. The client advisory contracts are expected to be awarded by the end of June 2016 and to be worth up to a combined £29m. A “decision in principle” on the form the Renovation would take (Duration/Schedule) is expected to be reached by members of both Houses of Parliament in spring 2016 to allow for the works to begin in 2020/21.

July 2016 stated by Building.co.uk It is understood the Department of Health’s headquarters, the 1980s-built Richmond House, which is near the Palace of Westminster, is still the frontrunner to be parliament’s temporary home and that the necessary conversion works could be rolled into the current Northern Estate works programme, A parliamentary joint committee is currently finalizing a report into its preferred option for restoring the Palace of Westminster, which could take up to 30 years and cost between £4bn and £6bn. A parliamentary spokesperson confirmed decanting parliament could form part of the Northern Estate programme but declined to comment on candidate buildings. The spokesperson said: “No decisions have yet been taken on the future restoration of the Palace of Westminster.

September 2016 A senior parliamentary committee stated "The Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster concludes that the Palace of Westminster 'faces an impending crisis which we cannot responsibly ignore'. There is a substantial and growing risk of either a single, catastrophic event, such as a major fire, or a succession of incremental failures in essential systems which would lead to Parliament no longer being able to occupy the Palace"[6] and that the Parliament be vacated for six years for an urgent, £4+ billion repair. In response, Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton, suggested moving the seat of government to Manchester or Salford.[7]

Also in September Neil Gray MP member of the new Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster proposed "the Joint Committee declines to consider a draft Report until it has given full consideration to the possibility of constructing a permanent new Parliamentary building, while finding an alternative future use for the Palace of Westminster; notes that this option was included in the Pre-Feasibility Study and Preliminary Strategic Business Case published in October 2012 but was rejected by the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords House Committee at that stage; and resolves to apply the same rigorous scrutiny to the possible construction of a new Parliamentary building as it has applied to the other options for delivering the Restoration and Renewal Programme, before making a recommendation about the best option for carrying out the works" [8] the committee voted 11/1 against this proposal.

October 2016 Speaking to Building.co.uk - Former leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond says Liverpool or Manchester would be an ideal site to rebuild the Houses of Parliament. The Houses of Parliament should be rebuilt in Liverpool or Manchester with a detailed replica of the Commons’ debating chamber, Mr Salmond said the move was needed to “equalise” the economy so it was less dependent on London. MPs are due to vote soon on whether to press ahead with vital renovation plans for the Palace of Westminster, which is riddled with rodents, asbestos and plumbing problems, that are expected to take six years to complete at a cost of around £4bn. Many MPs, though, are furious that relocating Parliament into a new building with modern technology, preferably outside of London, has not been considered. Salmond said that by the time a new parliament was built or refurbishment was completed, currently estimated at 2028, Scotland would be independent. He said: “This place [the Palace of Westminster] should become a museum. My advice would be to build a modern parliament in Manchester, Liverpool, somewhere in the north of England - obviously Scotland will be independent by then - to equalise the country. “I would, just for sentiment’s sake, have the debating chamber be a mimic of this debating chamber here, the same way as [1990 UK political drama] House of Cards did. We could do it for a fraction of the cost and this place would get more tourists than it does at the present moment.” Salmond insisted that turning the Palace into a museum would be far cheaper than making it fit for 21st-century office use because repairs and upgrades would be less extensive. He believed the £4bn cost is likely to prove a vast underestimate of the final price tag. He added: “The basic refurbishment that costs the money is to secure it for working conditions. The amount to stop it collapsing is relatively small, the amount to replace the asbestos and make it safe is extensive. But the cost to make it compliant with modern technology is horrendous. “I would secure the tourist trail, make it the museum it should be, instead of people having to just traipse in and out, and build somewhere else.” Salmond has experience of troubled political buildings, having opposed the construction of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh when cost estimates rose from £50m to £230m in 2000. The eventual cost was £414m.[9] Also Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has sais that proposals to create a temporary floating parliament building while vital repair work at the Palace of Westminster is carried out should be seriously looked at.[10]

December 2016 Liberal Democrat peer Tony Greaves suggested on the BBC's Daily Politics moving the Capital out of London. [11]


Arguments for a Permanent Move North

A restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster could well result in the temporary relocation of Parliament but a permanent relocation to a new building now seems unlikely although the final hurdle of public reaction to the commitment of vast financial resources to the Westminster site could still have the potential to influence MP's and other groupings known to be supportive of a permanent move.

See Also

Sources

  1. ↑ Williams, Jennifer (17 September 2014). "Council bosses to study plan to move Parliament to Manchester".
  2. ↑ "Why not move MPs to Hull and turn Parliament into affordable flats?".
  3. ↑ "Where could MPs go if Parliament is closed for repairs? - BBC News".
  4. ↑ "Guess where George Galloway wants to move the Houses of Parliament? On". 18 March 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/house-of-commons-commission/minutes/commons-commission-bulletins-to-members/bulletin-29-october-2012/
  6. ↑ http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/joint-committee-on-the-palace-of-westminster/news-parliament-2015/restoration-of-palace-of-westminster-report-published-16-17/
  7. ↑ Keegan, Simon (9 September 2016). "Houses of Parliament should be sold off, Labour MP says". BBC News. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  8. ↑ http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/Palace%20of%20Westminster/Formal-minutes/Collated-formal-minutes-Committee-of-Palace-of-Westminster-2016-17-session.pdf
  9. ↑ http://www.building.co.uk/news/salmond-calls-for-parliament-to-move-north/5084339.article
  10. ↑ http://www.building.co.uk/corbyn-welcomes-plan-for-temporary-%E2%80%98floating-parliament%E2%80%99/5084426.article
  11. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38186302
  12. ↑ niallcooper (17 September 2014). "Re-uniting the UK: 10 reasons for moving the UK's Parliament north".
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