‘Unacceptable cloak of secrecy’ around Houses of Parliament restoration, says MP
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has told Sky News she “could weep for the five years” lost by the decision to abolish the organisation set up to managed the long-term renovation of parliament.
Dame Meg Hillier MP says there is an “unacceptable cloak of secrecy” around the restoration programme which she says was effectively sent back to the drawing board after the estimated bill rose to between £7 and £22 billion.
But every week the work isn’t done costs £2.5m maintenance – and former leader of the house Dame Andrea Leadsom says she’s worried the Palace of Westminster could be Britain’s Notre Dame.
After decades of debate, MPs are still intensely divided about the cost of the work, whether they have to move out of parliament, and where their temporary home might be if so.
When the Palace of Westminster burnt to the ground in 1834 the flames were so high they could be seen from 20 miles away.
Palace of Westminster on Fire 1834. Pic: UK Parliament
Politicians of the day had spent many years beforehand arguing about the need to renovate the old parliament.
Now, nearly 200 years later, many fear that without large-scale restoration work a similar disaster could befall its successor.
But after decades of debate, the organisation set up by parliament in 2018 to manage the huge renovation project has been scrapped.
“I could weep for the five years we’ve lost,” says Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “There was a real issue here about shooting the messenger.
“It feels very much like we are back to square one. Now we have no sponsor body, no plans to carry out the work, and there’s still argument about whether we should stay in the building while the work is done or not.
“This is not about us as MPs. This is about a building that belongs to the country – yes, it will cost a lot of money, but you can’t dodge it.”
A recent report from the committee concluded any likely start date “has been pushed back by many years because of repeated attempts to revisit the basis of the programme”.
“We do not want it to take another catastrophic incident to finally galvanise action,” it reads.
What work is actually taking place?
Ongoing repair work to strengthen the roof and Victorian masonry is constantly under way and work has recently been carried out to restore the ceiling of St Stephen’s Hall, for example (on the site of the original Commons Chamber, which burnt down), as well as the renovation of the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben.
But the real challenge is in the vast, labyrinthine basement with gas and dripping water pipes jumbled together alongside a morass of electric wiring, telephone cables, and even a working steam engine which is part of the Victorian sewage system.
Dr Alexandra Meakin, a politics lecturer at the University of Leeds, is an expert on the restoration programme. She says the mess in the basement is a disaster waiting to happen.
“With gas and steam pipes running alongside each other, even a tiny leak, there is a huge fire risk – it’s only allowed to stay open at all if there are fire wardens patrolling 24 hours a day.
“The risk is real, it’s not just cosmetic work. And it’s not just about the MPs and peers, but about the staff who work there – the thousands of people in catering and cleaning who shouldn’t have to work in a death trap, not to mention all the millions of visitors, including school children.”
The palace is also riddled with asbestos – last year it emerged a leak during building work meant up to 117 contractors and staff had potentially been exposed.
“If you try to do major work in the palace, it’s going to be difficult to work around it,” says Dr Meakin. “Asbestos runs the whole length of the building.”
Concerns over costs, timescales and governance
In January 2018, parliament voted to move forward with plans to vacate the building – known as a ‘decant’ – and carry out a full renovation, setting up an independent sponsor body (a team of some 55 staff and experts as well as parliamentarians) to lead and manage the project along the lines of the London Olympics.
Last January they published provisional cost and schedule estimates which predicted that the essential works alone would cost between £7bn and £13bn – and take 19 to 28 years.
If MPs and peers insisted on staying put, they warned the project could end up lasting as long as 76 years, and cost as much as £22bn.
For some, this was just too much to accept.
In March, the Commissions of the House of Commons and Lords (made up of the speakers, clerks and other senior parliamentarians) said they had concerns over the project’s costs, timescales and governance.
They recommended scrapping the sponsor body altogether and bringing the vast project in house.
MPs and Lords voted that through in the summer, and the decision passed into law just before Christmas.
Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh is sceptical of what he describes as the “ridiculous” estimates drawn up by the sponsor body.
“There are ways of doing it that mean you don’t have to move everybody out at vast expense,” he claims.
“We can’t have a very expensive gold-plated plan, especially when the economy is in tatters – the public would look askance at parliament spending £20bn on itself.”
‘We just need to get on with it’
Last month the Shadow Leader of the House, Thangam Debbonaire MP, accused some MPs of “undermining” the work of the sponsor body and “wrangling with the experts”.
Sir Edward denies this is the case, and says it’s right for MPs and Lords to take back control of the project.
“We just need to get on with it and make it safe,” he says.
Dame Meg Hillier by contrast describes the commission’s intervention as “grubby”.
“If they did this to any other piece of legislation, there would be uproar,” she says. “I’m incredibly concerned.
“We’ve seen huge problems in the past – costs nearly tripled during the renovation of the Elizabeth Tower, and the memory of what happened with Portcullis House [which ended up substantially over budget and schedule when built to house MPs’ offices in the 1990s] still haunts people here.”
Where would staff move to?
Another complication is the lack of consensus on where the occupants of the Palace of Westminster would move to, even if agreement is reached on the need for them to do so.
While long-established plans had been developed to decant the Lords to the nearby Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, then-prime minister Boris Johnson later asked the programme to explore the option of sending them to York instead.
In May 2022 Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove also intervened, saying he would rather see them moving to Stoke.
As for MPs, under a previous phase of the project, £70m was spent preparing plans to rebuild Richmond House, the old Department of Health building in Westminster.
But that idea has now been dropped as being too expensive; and while some hope that the remote working technology used during COVID-19 could help provide a solution, reaching consensus on this aspect of the programme alone is clearly fraught with disagreement.
‘One of the most famous buildings in the world’
As former leader of the house, Dame Andrea Leadsom MP shepherded the 2018 legislation through parliament.
She says the decision to undo much of it “seems a means to kick the situation into the long grass – it’s disastrous.
“I get that it’s a huge bill, and I’m sympathetic to the need to get value for taxpayers’ money – but this is one of the most famous buildings in the world.
“There have been something like 50 fire incidents in the recent decade, any one of them could have resulted in a kind of Notre Dame style absolute burning down of the palace.
“There’s a huge amount of money being spent already just to patch and mend… we just need to crack on and do it rather than circling back round all the time and changing the decisions about how we’re going to do it.”
When will the next vote take place?
MPs are now expected to vote on a new strategy by the end of next year.
In a statement, parliament said: “In July 2022 members of both Houses agreed a more integrated approach to future restoration, prioritising safety critical work. We are getting on with work across the parliamentary estate to ensure the safety of those who work and visit here, and to support the continued business of parliament.
“This includes planning for the large and complex restoration of the Palace of Westminster to preserve it for future generations.
“More than 2,000 areas of the palace have been investigated this year to give a better understanding of the building’s condition. These surveys will inform a wide set of options for delivery of the restoration work, including the level of ambition during these challenging economic times.”
World
Software issue hits thousands of Airbus A320 planes – UK passengers warned of potential disruption
Passengers have been warned of potential disruption after thousands of Airbus planes were hit by a software issue.
The aircraft affected are from the A320 family – which are used by numerous airlines – and need a systems update before they can fly again.
Airbus issued the alert after analysis of a flight involving an A320 showed “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”.
The Airbus A320 family is the most-delivered jetliner in history.. File pic: iStock
It is understood the incident that triggered the warning involved a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark on 30 October.
That flight was diverted to Tampa International Airport after it suffered a flight control issue and experienced a sharp loss of altitude, which injured at least 15 passengers.
An Airbus spokesperson told Sky News the software change would affect up to 6,000 planes.
The fix involves A320 aircraft reverting to an earlier software version and Airbus stressed it would only take two to three hours for most planes.
However, it said some jets would also need new hardware and therefore would be affected for longer. Industry sources estimated about 1,000 aircraft could be in this position.
America’s aviation watchdog has issued an emergency order to immediately replace or modify the software, mirroring one from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
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Solving Airbus software issue could take ‘several hours per aircraft’
‘Very concerning’
Gatwick said a “small number” of carriers based there were affected, but warned disruption was still possible. It urged passengers to contact their airline.
Heathrow said it wasn’t expecting any disruption.
“The good news is it seems the impact on UK airlines seems limited, with a smaller number of aircraft requiring more complex software and hardware changes,” said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.
She said it was “heartening this issue has been identified and will be addressed so swiftly”.
Airbus is understood to have traced the issue to the ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer) system, which sends commands to elevators on the plane’s tail. These in turn control the aircraft’s pitch or nose angle.
Travel expert Simon Calder said the situation was “very concerning” but stressed “aviation remains extraordinarily safe”.
He warned customers might not be entitled to compensation if they’re delayed as the issue would be considered out of airlines’ control.
Read more:
Which airlines are affected by Airbus disruption?
Why plane’s altitude drop led to thousands needing updates
What have airlines said?
EasyJet said it had already completed the software update on many aircraft and was working closely with safety authorities.
“We plan to operate our flying programme normally on Saturday and ask that customers travelling continue to monitor their flights on flight tracker,” it added.
The airline said passengers would be informed of any changes by email, SMS, or the flight tracker
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How the US is affected by Airbus software issue
British Airways said it wasn’t expecting any problems and that only three of its planes were affected.
For American Airlines – the world’s largest operator of the A320 – the issue was more significant, with 209 aircraft needing an update.
It comes on a huge travel weekend stateside as many travel home after Thanksgiving. However, the US carrier said the fix would be completed for the vast majority of its planes on Friday.
Others affected include Japan’s All Nippon Airways, which cancelled 65 domestic flights on Saturday, and Air France – which said it was cancelling 35 flights.
Ireland’s Aer Lingus said a limited number of aircraft were impacted, while Wizz Air has started the software update but said some weekend flights could still be affected.
“Passengers who booked directly with Wizz Air via the website or mobile app will be notified of any schedule changes,” the airline said.
Thousands of planes from Airbus’s widely-used A320 family have been ordered for repairs following a software issue.
The aircraft manufacturer is carrying out software updates for 6,000 of its jets – around half the global fleet – threatening travel disruption for airline passengers.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said it expects some disruptions to airlines and flights, with easyJet and Wizz Air saying they will take some planes briefly out of service to do the repairs.
But why have airlines been told to carry out a software update for the planes, and how is solar radiation involved?
Follow the latest updates on this story
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Airbus software works to take ‘days’
What triggered the repair order?
It is understood the incident that triggered the unexpected repair order involved a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on 30 October.
The flight suffered a control problem and a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude, basically a sharp loss of height, which left 15 passengers with injuries and forced the flight to make an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida.
After investigating the incident, Airbus said “intense solar radiation” may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
The issue is known as bit flip, where solar radiation can strike a computer’s memory, changing its data from a 0 to a 1 and vice versa – a risk which also affects spacecraft.
Read more: Which airlines are affected by Airbus disruption?
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Ex-pilot tells Sky News how long it could take to solve Airbus software issue
‘Very concerning’ – but ‘very low likelihood’ of such an event
The situation was “very concerning”, travel expert Simon Calder told Sky News presenter Gillian Joseph.
However, he said there was a “very low likelihood” of such an event happening, adding: “In aviation, nothing is taken for granted.”
He said: “Aviation remains extraordinarily safe. And that is partly because as soon as a possible threat is identified, then action is taken immediately.”
What is the fix?
The fix involves reverting to earlier software, but must be carried out before the planes can fly again, according to a bulletin to airlines.
Airbus said for most of the affected aircraft, the required update would only take between two to three hours.
However, some jets may need to have their hardware replaced to adopt the required software – a process which would take a longer time.
The Airbus bulletin traced the problem to a flight system called ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer), which sends commands from the pilot’s side-stick to elevators at the rear of the plane, Reuters reported.
Those elevators control the aircraft’s pitch or nose angle, determining which way it is flying.
The A320 was first launched in 1984 and is the main competitor to the Boeing 737 MAX, which was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020, as well as during January 2024, after fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 caused by faulty flight-control software.
World
‘Even if my parents are dead, I just want to know’: Hong Kong residents stunned by tower tragedy
What do you do, how do you spend your time, when you’ve just lost everything you have?
This was the dilemma for thousands today in Hong Kong.
On the whole, it seemed people chose to stay close to the scene.
Hong Kong fire block latest: More arrests in deadly tower blaze
The square that had become the heart of the community response was heaving. Many poured through the piles of clothes, blankets and other supplies.
Some simply sat and watched on, their faces blank and stunned.
Birds fly over the burned buildings at the fire scene at Wang Fuk Court, on 27 November. Pic: AP
Above them, the seven blackened towers are now still and quiet. The blaze is finally out.
But an unknown number are still lying somewhere inside – and the wait for news is unbearable.
“Even if they are dead, I just want to know,” cries Mr Lau, whose elderly parents lived 27 floors up. His grief is raw and unchecked.
“I want to ask John Lee [Hong Kong’s chief executive], what are you actually doing? All you did was wander around and hold press conferences. What about us?”
His questions reflect a noticeable shift in the tone here.
There is a tension emerging, an anxiety, even an anger.
People look at flames engulfing a building after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court on 26 November. Pic: AP
Of course, people are furious with the construction company that was undertaking renovations and is accused of cutting corners.
But that is not their only target.
Many here believe the Beijing-backed government has not enforced good enough safety standards, batting away residents’ concerns and turning a blind eye to issues like overcrowding.
They say it is now too focused on deflecting the blame.
“With every building maintenance project, there are criticisms, but these criticisms are always suppressed,” explains one man who lives in the neighbourhood.
Flowers near the scene. Pic: AP
And do you think there’s corruption, I ask?
“Absolutely,” he says.
They are particularly exercised about what they see as an overfocus on the bamboo scaffolding.
Considered almost a part of Hong Kong’s cultural heritage, it was already being phased out. A convenient distraction from other failings, according to people here.
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Hundreds missing after Hong Kong fire
Tensions are high, too, between different groups of volunteers.
We witnessed two separate arguments where local grassroots organisers accused some who are part of a government-linked group of attempting to seize control and take the credit.
In the Hong Kong of old, there would almost certainly have been vigils here.
But after a massive crackdown on pro-democracy movements that climaxed in 2019, any mass gathering in today’s Hong Kong is seen as dangerous.
A resident looks at the burned buildings. Pic: AP
Even if it is just to honour the dead.
It feels like the resentments left over from that time are not that far from the surface.
This is still a human tragedy, but the fallout could well be political.
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