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Ministers blamed for £32m palace repairs backlog
Rashid Razaq10.12.08
THE Government came under fire today for allowing the Royal Palaces to accumulate a £32 million repair backlog.
A National Audit Office report, published today, criticises the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is responsible for their upkeep, for not having a maintenance system in place to safeguard buildings such as Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Clarence House.
The Royal Household's £15million annual grant has not increased since 2001, which equates to a 19 per cent drop in real terms, according to the report.
This has led to some of the 360 residences and monuments falling into disrepair, such as Victoria and Albert Mausoleum, which has been waiting for repair work for 14 years. Edward Leigh, chairman of the public accounts committee, said it warned the culture department to keep a "close eye" on the backlog seven years ago. He added: "Why has the department set objectives if it has no way of measuring whether they are achieved?"
The cost of maintaining the occupied Royal Palaces falls on the Government.
In 1991 the department delegated responsibility for their upkeep to the Royal Household, through its Property Services department. Out of the £32 million backlog, Property Services said £26 million of work should have been completed and a further £6 million in the next 10 years.
A culture department spokesman said: "We are working with the Royal Household Property Services to form a comprehensive picture of the state of the Royal Palaces."
Reader views (1)
£15million a year and they still can't balance their books? Guess who'll be asked to dig them out of their financial mess now then - yup - it'll be the taxpayer again. Come on - banks, pensions, royalty - we can pay for them all twice if we just stop wasting what is left of our hard earned pittances on luxuries like bread and cheese.
- Deborah, London
