Parliament works hit £216 million

Ah parliamentary renovation: they talk of little else in the Red Wall. For more than a decade now, Westminster has been obsessed with the subject of our crumbling Commons, with staff forced to dodge falling masonry, leaking pipes and impudent rodents as they navigate the estate. Last month, Dame Meg Hillier of the Public Accounts Committee warned that there was an ‘unacceptable cloak of secrecy’ around the ongoing restoration programme. And perhaps we now know why. For figures were published yesterday which show that some £216.5 million was spent on the Restoration and Renewal Programme between spring 2020 and March 2022. The total forecast spend for the current financial year is £87 million total. Yikes.

Still, that’s not the only issue troubling the great and the not-so-good in SW1. Mr S reported last week that staff were spending £12,000 a week on 11 traffic marshals, the annual equivalent of £59,506 per person.