By KUNA,
London : British MPs could be moved out of Parliament for up to three years while a major refit of the House of Commons takes place, parliamentary officials said Thursday.
Urgent work costing “hundreds of millions of pounds” needs to be carried out on the historic building.
The House of Commons authorities have commissioned a 250,000 pounds feasibility study into the options for relocating MPs while it is completed.
They could meet at a nearby conference centre, or even in the House of Lords chamber, which does not need a similar refit.
Essential repairs to the Palace of Westminster are usually carried out during the summer months when Parliament is in recess, but the scale of work which needs to be done is so great that it would take about 25 years to complete in this way.
More than 500 miles of water pipes, electrical cables and telephone wires need to be replaced in what would be the biggest programme of works since 1947, when the House of Commons last underwent a major refit.
There were 33 leaks from hot water pipes in the past month alone, and there is also a problem with asbestos, which needs to be removed.
A House of Commons spokeswoman said much of the infrastructure had reached the end of its “economic life”.
“Work has to be done all the time but there comes a point when you have to do major replacement”, she said.
The spokeswoman added that if it was decided to close the House of Commons chamber, the MPs would move somewhere close to the Houses of Parliament, to enable them to carry on working as closely as possible to normal.