Houses of Parliament at risk of ‘Notre Dame-style fire’ as renovation costs rise

Report says cost of maintenance could soon reach £2m a week, including 24-hour patrols to avert fire risk

The Palace of Westminster will be at risk of a Notre Dame-style fire or a similar catastrophic event if MPs do not tackle the issue of funding refurbishments, a parliamentary committee has said.

Decisions about how and when to begin a full restoration of the building, which is Grade I-listed and a Unesco world heritage site, have been repeatedly delayed amid disagreement over how it should be done and spiralling costs.

The cost of maintaining the estate will soon hit £2m a week, and a recent estimate found the work could cost as much as £40bn and potentially last for six decades.

The cross-party Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said urgent action was needed to avoid the risk of a major fire or similar disaster, and to staunch increasing costs, with every year of inaction adding an estimated £420m to the restoration programme.

There has been a “political allergy” to making decisions, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP who chairs the PAC, said.

As well as the ever-increasing costs, he said, MPs should also “imagine the blow suffered by the UK’s morale and reputation of some kind of catastrophic failure”.

“Consider the impact of global rolling news footage of Notre Dame-like flames licking out of the building’s roof, resulting in the destruction of our heritage, or worse, injuries or loss of life,” he said.

“These are not notional possibilities, but real and rising risks.”

The Victorian estate has been beset by problems that are barely kept in check by ongoing maintenance, including regular plumbing failures, leaking roofs, crumbling masonry protected by a maze of scaffolding and a persistent risk of fire, mainly from outdated electrics, necessitating 24-hour fire patrols.

This has resulted in a maintenance bill of about £1.5m a week. The PAC report said that without action the figure was expected to reach £2m.

The issue has been seen as a matter for MPs and peers for decide, rather than the government. The PAC stressed that it was not its role to recommend a particular programme, but the report urges action and has made a series of recommendations for making the process work better.

It says that in the next six months the clerks of the Commons and the Lords – who are nominally in charge of the process – should set out a plan to properly engage parliamentarians, something it says has so far been lacking.

Other recommendations include a more robust set of cost estimates and a timetable to help a decision about the main project in 2030, as well as a more urgent approach to finalising temporary accommodation for both chambers while the works take place.

Calling the current governance of the scheme “far too complex”, it says it should be made easier, and a new restoration and renewal select committee formed, allowing MPs to hold senior officials to account.