£32m palaces maintenance backlog

The Government has been criticised over its management of Britain's royal palaces which have a maintenance backlog totalling £32 million.

Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said his body warned the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to keep a "close eye" on the backlog seven years ago.

His comments follow a National Audit Office report that states the DCMS - ultimately responsible for the upkeep of occupied royal palaces - and the Royal Household had not agreed a way of managing the repairs.

The document also stated the department had no clear basis for assessing whether the buildings, which include Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, were being maintained to a standard consistent with their royal, architectural and historic status.

Mr Leigh said: "There is actually no comprehensive record of the condition of the estate (of occupied royal palaces). Without this, how can the department hold the Royal Household to account? And why has the department set objectives if it has no way of measuring whether they are achieved?

"This committee recommended in 2001 that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport keep a close eye on whether a backlog of maintenance was developing. The Royal Household now says there is a £32 million backlog but as yet there is no plan for managing this.

"The Victoria and Albert Mausoleum, which is on the national Buildings at Risk register, is included in this maintenance backlog, even though the need for repair was first identified 14 years ago."

The occupied royal palaces are held in trust for the nation by the Sovereign but the cost of maintaining them falls on the Government.

In 1991 the DCMS delegated responsibility for their upkeep and running to the Royal Household which does this through its Property Services Department.

The whole estate of occupied palaces encompasses around 360 buildings including Clarence House - the Prince of Wales' London home, St James' Palace, parts of Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Mews and Windsor Home Park.