Several parties have advocated the relocation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from its current location at the Palace of Westminster, London, to the English Midlands or Northern England, for economic or other reasons.
[5] The Electoral Reform Society supports the idea of relocation, making a case for England's and Britain's demographic or geographic centres of gravity.
In the 1850s, during the Great Stink, Parliament considered moving to either Henley, Oxford or St Albans, to avoid the foul smell of the Thames, but ultimately decided against it.
Equally, the Commission is acutely conscious of the current public spending environment and is committed to ensuring that any consideration of how the Palace could be restored is based upon securing maximum value for taxpayers' money.
"[8] Building stated: "It is understood the Department of Health’s headquarters, the 1980s-built Richmond House, which is a stone’s throw away from the Palace of Westminster, is still the frontrunner to be parliament's temporary home and that the necessary conversion works could be rolled into the Northern Estate programme.
A parliamentary spokesperson confirmed decanting parliament could form part of the Northern Estate programme but declined to comment on candidate buildings.
There is a substantial and growing risk of either a single, catastrophic event, such as a major fire, or a succession of incremental failures in essential systems which would lead to Parliament no longer being able to occupy the Palace.
[11] Also in September, Neil Gray, member of the new Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster, proposed: "the Joint Committee declines to consider a draft Report until it has given full consideration to the possibility of constructing a permanent new Parliamentary building, while finding an alternative future use for the Palace of Westminster; notes that this option was included in the Pre-Feasibility Study and Preliminary Strategic Business Case published in October 2012 but was rejected by the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords House Committee at that stage; and resolves to apply the same rigorous scrutiny to the possible construction of a new Parliamentary building as it has applied to the other options for delivering the Restoration and Renewal Programme, before making a recommendation about the best option for carrying out the works.
Speaking to Building, former leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, said Liverpool or Manchester would be an ideal site to rebuild the Houses of Parliament.
MPs were due to vote soon on whether to press ahead with vital renovation plans for the Palace of Westminster, which was riddled with rodents, asbestos and plumbing problems.
[13] Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also said that proposals to create a temporary floating parliament building while vital repair work at the Palace of Westminster is carried out should be seriously looked at.
[17][18] In a separate development Michael Gove joined a group of MPs who had spoken out against plans to shut down the Palace of Westminster to carry out vital repairs.