U.K.

British Lawmakers May Need to Leave Parliament Complex

According to The Guardian the Westminster Repairs Committee, which is made up of MPs and Lords will be officially recommending that the entire legislature abandon ship, so that important repairs can be made to the crumbling Victorian building.

Members of Parliament look set to vacate the Palace of Westminster for six whole years so that the entire building can be refit and refurbished.

The ambitious renovation project would force MPs to move to the Department of Health building on Whitehall, while peers would be relocated to the Queen Elizabeth Conference centre across Parliament Square.

Britain's creaky, leaky Parliament building faces "an impending crisis", and lawmakers must move out for the first time since World War II so fix work can be done, a report on the structure said Thursday.

It said the "current patch and mend approach to maintaining the palace is no longer sustainable and recommends that a major programme of works is now essential, and that Parliament must enable the next stage of urgent and vital preparatory work to go ahead so as to minimise costs and reduce further risks".

"That is the lowest risk, most cost-effective and quickest option", said committee member and opposition Labour lawmaker Chris Bryant.

A 2012 report said the building could suffer "major, irreversible damage" without work.

The independent options appraisal, published in 2015, suggested moving to alternative premises temporarily would be less costly and ultimately more practical than trying to carry out repairs with MPs and peers still in place - a process it said could take more than three decades.

According to The Times, after almost 14 months of deliberation, MPs and peers on a restoration committee will recommend that both houses be moved out between 2022 and 2028.

He added: "We need to work on making them work in the future, we are not going to be suddenly installing windows from Anglian - nothing against Anglian, of course". It's a big decision. "We need to do a great deal more in fire compartmentation".

Former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Alex Salmond said the report "does not put all the options on the table". A committee charged with stopping Britain's creaky, leaky Parliament from falling down is set to say whether lawmakers will have to move out for several years so fix work can be done.

Downing Street declined to say how long Mrs May would take to consider her response to the report.

The spokesman said Mrs May would be determined to ensure value for money on a project that will run into billions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

stayontheblack.com

British Lawmakers May Need to Leave Parliament Complex