Cast your minds back to the new millennium: Tony Blair was in power, Robbie Williams top of the chart. It was the year the Dome opened; so too did Portcullis House in Westminster. Back then, the £235 million parliamentary office was predicted to last two centuries when it opened, thanks to its supposed quality workmanship and premium materials. But fast forward 23 years and PCH is ageing about as well as Blair’s pledge to be ‘purer than pure’.
Last month, water poured into the PCH atrium after a ‘huge bang’, leaving the area fenced off with scaffolding underneath. It was just the latest in a series of issues that have plagued the central courtyard’s glazed roof, with a written parliamentary answer confirming there have been at least two other breakages reported since 2019 and 12 recorded leaks since 2018. Previously reported incidents include breakages in 2005, 2008 and 2014.
In 2014 it was revealed that repairs to cracks in the roof had cost £36,000 over five years – an annual cost of £7,200. And now Mr S can reveal that parliamentary authorities have spent £92,000 in the nine years since on 15 different occasions, meaning the annual cost has now jumped to more than £10,000. A Freedom of Information request showed that £26,000 was spent in October 2021 alone on reactive maintenance services and installing an advanced window system.
A major report into PCH’s roof defects is now expected within weeks. It raises the prospect of another costly bill for roof repairs, with the building’s outdated electrical and mechanical systems already to be replaced at a cost of up to £143 million. Not the first time leaks have cost the taxpayer dear…
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