For most of us the term R&R means the promise of rest and relaxation but for anyone associated with the Palace of Westminster it stands for ‘Restoration and Renewal’, a long overdue process that has already been subject to several reports and an Act of Parliament.

While parliamentarians have dithered, creating committees and writing reports, the state of the palace has deteriorated

Another report, ‘Delivering restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster’, was published on 5 February setting out four costed options for reform. The joint client board of both Houses, comprising ten Lords and seven MPs, has sat on the fence by recommending two very different options for further investigation. 

Boris Johnson had just succeeded Theresa May when the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019 received Royal Assent. There have been three more prime ministers (as of writing) since then. Why it should have taken over six years to get from establishing the statutory framework for restoration to publishing a report on the options, which is still unable to decide between two recommendations, is baffling. The answer seems to lie in the complex governance of the project, which essentially means running it by committees. 

The options still on the table range from 19 to 61 years for project duration and estimate a total budget cost, excluding inflation, of between £8.4 billion and £18.7 billion. Government cost projections for major building and........

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