Notre Dame blaze adds urgency to Commons revamp

The first designs for a temporary parliament during the refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster were published yesterday after the Notre Dame fire gave the project a new urgency.

Under the plans, which received a mixed response from MPs, Richmond House in Whitehall will be mostly bulldozed to host a temporary debating chamber.

Only the distinctive façade will be retained and the rest of the building will be removed to make way for a large L-shaped block containing committee rooms, division lobbies, offices and sports facilities, as well as a roof terrace. MPs will still sit on green benches.

A temporary one-storey security pavilion will be built opposite the cenotaph. Planning permission will be sought this year.

MPs voted last year in favour of moving out of Westminster while refurbishment work was carried out. The project, priced at £4 billion, has been beset by delays, and the move is not expected to begin until the mid-2020s.

The risk of a further delay to 2028 may have been averted, however, after the sacking of Gavin Williamson as defence secretary. He had objected to the use of a Ministry of Defence car park by parliament.

Pictures of the layout were unveiled as the government introduced a bill that will set up an Olympics-style delivery authority to oversee the refurbishment programme.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, told The Times: “I voted against the move and still believe we were right. This picture of an expensive, ghastly, characterless, soulless bowling alley gives me no reason to think I was wrong then.”

One cabinet minister said: “It looks like a spaceship. I guess that’s what the public would like to put us on.”Another minister compared it to a sauna.

However, the move cannot happen soon enough for Neil Coyle, a Labour MP. “Too many boring old farts are opposed to any move and need to get over themselves and allow all parliamentary staff, including in catering, security and post, the facilities they need,” he said.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP, said that he was “worried about the risk of spiralling costs”. Sir Edward Leigh, another Tory MP, asked Theresa May at prime minister’s questions for reassurances that the plan would not result in “a replica of the House of Commons where MPs may be parked for many years”.

Mrs May said: “I’m sure he will agree with me it’s imperative parliament keeps the total bill as low as possible.”

The plans were also criticised by conservationists who have opposed the demolition and remodelling of the interior of Richmond House, a grade II* listed building that was completed in 1987 and designed largely by the late Sir William Whitfield. His former design partner, Andrew Lockwood, said there was “no real argument for demolishing it as it could easily be brought up to scratch as modern office accommodation. They need to have another think about alternatives, because this proposal is pretty bland and dreary.”

The move of MPs to the former Department of Health building was chosen from several alternatives by a committee in 2016 on the grounds that it would cause the least disruption and was likely to be the most cost-efficient.

The project was given momentum by fears that a similar catastrophe to that at Notre Dame could befall the Palace of Westminster. Andrea Leadsom, leader of the Commons, stressed the need to get on with the move. “Events like the terrible fire in Paris bring home to us sharply the importance of our historic buildings,” she said.

The estate is vulnerable to fire and flood because of miles of outdated wiring, heating and sewerage systems, while some MPs’ offices have been made uninhabitable by asbestos and mice. In 2017 a piece of masonry fell and hit an MP’s car. Sixty-six incidents that had the potential to cause a serious fire have been recorded there since 2008, and a team of 32 staff is employed round the clock to patrol the grounds and look out for fires.

The joint committee report from 2016 warned that parliament would be struck by a “catastrophic event, such as a major fire ... in the next decade”.

A parliamentary official said: “The approach of focusing the scale of intervention on Richmond House has been thoroughly tested, recognising that this does cause harm to a listed building and we have not embarked on this lightly.”

The official added that at present Richmond House functioned “very poorly” as an office building and “the entire project is aimed at enabling the timely restoration and renewal of the single most important listed building in the country — the Palace of Westminster”.

When MPs eventually move back to the Palace of Westminster, the chamber of the remodelled Richmond House will be used as a learning centre. The rest will remain as offices.