Asbestos will be an important issue during the restoration of the Palace of Westminster after reports revealed 15 per cent of the building’s spaces are affected.
Experts also discovered more reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – a historical building material that has exceeded its lifespan and which can pose structural safety risks – at the Grade I-listed complex.
At a Westminster committee meeting yesterday (19 March), representatives from the palace’s restoration and renewal teams updated MPs ahead of a debate on pushing ahead with the £3bn first phase of renovations.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were told that asbestos would be an issue after the latest reports showed 620 of the palace’s 3,999 spaces were identified as containing asbestos, mainly in the basement.
Spaces are distinct from rooms, and include many spaces behind walls, above ceilings, under floors, in stairwells, corridors, and service areas. The basement’s large footprint is divided into many smaller spaces for location mapping; these spaces are not conventional rooms.
The warning came ahead of procurement for the first phase of work, which is due to begin later this year, with a target to appoint many of the “strategic partners” in 2027.
Russ MacMillan, chief executive of the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority – the body responsible for designing, planning and managing the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament – said his team would “not definitively know” the extent of the issue until they moved into each zone and took the fabric off the walls.
“We have done set sampling surveys and have estimated the quantity of asbestos on that basis: there are 90,000 square metres of coatings,” he said.
“Sometimes asbestos is best left but when we need to remove services it is often around them and the whole thing needs to be removed as an asbestos-contained material.”
In 2023, the PAC had estimated that asbestos was present in 2,500 areas of the parliamentary buildings and that its removal would require 300 people working for two-and-a-half years.
Charlotte Simmonds, managing director of the Restoration and Renewal Client Team – which oversees, instructs and holds to account the Delivery Authority – told yesterday’s committee hearing that more RAAC had also been found.
A 2023 report identified 16 areas of RAAC, predominantly in the upper committee corridor and T-block of the Houses of Parliament.
“In 2025, as the surveys continued, we found six additional areas in the north block and have mitigated it,” she said.
“There is an in-house project in place to rectify it but the main structural works will come through the restoration and renewal programme.”
Last month, parliament’s Restoration and Renewal Client Board – which is made up of members of the Commons and Lords, and is responsible for making critical strategic choices and recommendations relating to the restoration – announced that the first phase of work would hopefully begin this year.
Yesterday, the committee was told this phase would take seven years, with planning expected to be submitted in 2030.
However, MacMillan warned that if the planning process hit stumbling blocks, then each year of delay could cost up to £250m with inflationary costs.
Phase one of the scheme will include the construction of temporary chambers and office space, as well as a river jetty for material delivery and spoil removal.
PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown raised concerns that the proposed costs and level of work were “not going to be delivered”, and called for a “clearly articulated vision”.
The start of work is conditional on approval from the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Simmonds said: “We need direction and decision to move forward.”
Last month’s report presented two options for the full refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament.
One was for a full temporary relocation of MPs and peers to enable works to take place over 19 to 24 years, at an inflation-adjusted cost of up to £15.6bn.
The other would see phased work dividing the palace into 14 zones, meaning no more than 30 per cent of the building would be out of use at any one time.
The report said this option would take 38 to 61 years and cost up to £39.2bn, including inflation.
MPs will be asked to debate and vote on the proposals. The client board has recommended that a final decision is taken no later than 2030.
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Nicola Harley