Taxpayers fork out £60,000 on new bushes for MPs – however they may not keep alive

Taxpayers have forked out practically £60,000 on new bushes for MPs in Westminster, after the final lot had been eliminated following their incapability to remain upright.

Twelve fig bushes, which insisted on continuously falling over, had been faraway from the atrium of Portcullis House in 2022 – however not earlier than the Commons spent greater than £500,000 on attempting to maintain them alive.

The earlier bushes had been imported again in 2000 after the Portcullis House constructing had already run means over finances and missed its opening deadline.

In February new bushes and plant pots appeared in the important thing MP assembly and low area. A freedom of knowledge request has now revealed the bushes as soon as once more got here in at an eye-watering determine.

Taxpayers coughed up £41,082 for the brand new bushes, vegetation, soil and pots, with an extra £7,450 for set up.

Both figures are excluding VAT, that means the whole price of the brand new decor got here to £58,238.40.

Asked whether or not Parliament has undertaken any green-fingered measures to make sure the brand new greenery received’t succumb to the identical morbid finish as their plant predecessors, the House of Commons stated they do “not hold a formal horticultural assessment for this in the way specified”.

The news comes simply six days after the Express revealed parliament had splashed £260,000 of taxpayer money on new netting in Portcullis House, in an try to forestall the glass roof cracking and falling on guests and workers.

The netting was put in after an embarrassing incident final yr, when a panel fractured and dumped a gallon of rainwater on unsuspecting workers.

After the well being and security nightmare, the Commons introduced it might be endeavor new security mitigations after the speedy restore works final yr.

The new mesh netting, put in below the atrium roof of Portcullis House (PCH), will hopefully present “an additional layer of protection” for MPs and aides.

The exorbitant price of each the bushes and netting comes after warnings the restoration and renewal venture in the primary Nineteenth-century palace might price £22billion and take 76 years.

The grand Portcullis House constructing got here in at a complete price of £235 million and was accomplished 9 years not on time.

The whole was £60 million over that initially budgeted, and it’s seen a variety of critical breakages since then.

In 2016, a 12-month £210,000 technical examine fee by the House of Commons stated the roof was “stable and posed no safety risk”.

The report stated “breakages would reduce over time”, however warned as much as £1.5 million could should be spent repairing the glass-panelled roof.

A yr later, it was warned that the invoice might in actual fact come to £100 million.