Buckingham Palace repairs to be funded by government

OHMYGOSSIP — Buckingham Palace’s £360 million repair bill be footed by the government, a temporary committee of MPs have decided.
The Royal family will also reportedly benefit from their income being doubled after it took the group of politicians – named the Seventh Dedicated Legislation Committee – just 13 minutes to debate the funds being released.
The only party members to object against the decision was Tommy Sheppard and George Kerevan from the Scottish National Party.
According to Independent newspaper, Sheppard said: “We cannot support this decision and this statutory instrument being passed in this way.
“It is not a suggestion that Buckingham Palace is not a public asset of historic importance that deserved to be preserved.
“What we object is using a change in the Sovereign Grant to pay for an infrastructure project. If a major investment of £400m needs to be made, then that should be treated as a separate capital project.
“It would be similar to saying the works that needed to be conduced at the Palace of Westminster should be funded by doubling the salary of MPs and asking them to make a contribution.”
Works on the property, which was built in 1703, are expected to start next month and will see the royal residence’s refitted with 100 new electric cables, water pipes, electrical sockets, lights and thousands of new radiators.
Last year, Queen Elizabeth was urged to foot the bill for the renovations herself.
A petition of more than 100,000 people was signed demanding the 90-year-old monarch pay for the repairs, which will take 10 years to complete.
The campaign called 38 Degrees was headed up by Mark Johnson, who feels more money should be spent on education and health care rather than the upkeep of the royal residence in London.
He said: “There is a national housing crisis, the NHS is in crisis, austerity is forcing cuts in many frontline services.
“Now the Royals expect us to dig deeper to refurbish Buckingham Palace.”
Several MPs have also had their say on whether public money should be spent on the project.
Labour shadow business secretary, Clive Lewis said: “I think the Queen could contribute quite a bit towards that – she’s one of the wealthiest people in the country. Why not?”
A final decision is to be announced next week, with the SNP’s objections and a potential ‘deferred vote’ not expected to change the plan of action.

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