Buckingham Palace to undergo major renovations worth £369 million

Britain’s great Buckingham Palace is set to get an overhaul worth £369 million after it was decided that the Queen’s palace requires major renovations. According to the latest reports, this fund is supposed to come from the taxpayers’ money and the plan was unveiled on Friday for some major renovations which will replace leaky pipes and fire-risk cables with new ones.

Due to the renovations, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip will not have to leave the palace but they will be forced to change rooms. On the other hand, around 37 permanent staff that currently live in the palace, have to move out of it temporarily.

The government is currently asking the parliament to approve the £369 million funding by increasing the share the Royals receive from the Crown Estate, which manages the royal properties. Previously this share was 15 percent and a 10 percent hike has been proposed.

“This palace is very much part of our DNA,” Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Queen´s Household, told reporters at a briefing in a palace drawing room.

He warned of “significant risk of electric shocks and fire” from 60-year-old cables, as well as “potential leakage from lead pipes” that could damage paintings, adding that the palace boilers dated back 30 years.

The last time the palace underwent any major overhaul was after the World War II to repair damage from German bombing. This current renovation is set to begin next year and it will last till 2025. These renovations are expected to extend the life of the building by another 50 years.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=54164

Posted by fatimaarshad on Nov 21 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.