The Big Ben clock tower is leaning and cracks are growing in walls around the Houses of Commons and Lords as the whole edifice slides slowly into the River Thames. Excavation of the Jubilee Line in the 1990s is believed to have contributed to the problem.
The Palace of Westminster has always been an expensive place to maintain, but bills are now getting so high, and set to escalate further, as to put in question the future viability of the complex.
Therefore among options now being put forward are selling the site to private developers and building a new Parliament elsewhere.
MPs on the House of Commons Commission, responsible for the administration of Parliament, meet today under the chairmanship of Speaker John Bercow to discuss a surveyor's report on the issue.
Surveyors have said that repairs to the building would take at least five years to complete.
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