Question

To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the Restoration and Renewal Client Board, with reference to the proposed relocation and permanent reprovision of the Education Centre, what assessment the client board has made of the potential merits of relocating the Education Centre as part of the core Restoration and Renewal scope rather than retaining or upgrading its temporary arrangements; what the estimated capital and lifecycle costs of relocation are; whether alternative options involving refurbishment of existing facilities were costed; and how relocation contributes to (a) fire safety, (b) building services, (c) asbestos remediation and (d) fabric conservation.

As set out in the Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Client Board’s recent report, Delivering restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster: the costed proposals (HC Paper 1576), the preferred scope for the R&R works will deliver a permanent Education Centre. Early designs propose that the centre is based within the Palace.

The current Education Centre on the Victoria Tower Gardens site was always intended to be a temporary facility and it is not sited on Parliamentary estate land. The land is owned by the Royal Parks and Parliament’s license for its use is with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The temporary planning and license agreements for the Victoria Gardens site expire at the end of 2030. The relevant statutory bodies have said that any further application for extension of the current Education Centre temporary permission and licence will not be granted. A new location for the centre is therefore required after this date.

The proposed Education Centre accounts for 0.3% of Palace construction costs under the full decant option and 1.6% under the enhanced maintenance and improvement plus (EMI+) option. This is based on the base construction costs for the Palace project set out in Annex 2, table 2 of the report, which exclude risk and inflation.

The net reduction in Palace lifecycle costs as a result of the renewal of the Palace does not isolate a specific change for the Education Centre. The cost of refurbishing existing facilities was not considered given their temporary nature and the known requirement to move the facility.

The location of the new education centre has been considered as part of the wider fire strategy, though its provision does not directly contribute to the fire safety, building services, asbestos remediation or fabric conservation outlined in the R&R Client Board’s report.