Estimated costs have already risen from £3.5bn to £40bn. The PM should bite the bullet and relocate MPs outside London – permanently

What is the most reactionary public institution in Britain, the most outdated and immune to reform? It is the one that orders us to keep changing: parliament. It is also the most wildly extravagant. When the issue is hospitals, prisons and care homes, austerity is often the answer. When it comes to its own premises, only the best will do.

Big Ben has recently been restored at a cost of £80m and the entire Palace of Westminster has been reroofed for another £80m. Back in the 2000s, the basement was also reportedly much in need of repair. Its piping and wiring were so decayed they would fail within five to 10 years. Various committees debated and dithered, and eventually invited London’s most pukka consultants, Deloitte, to estimate what needed doing, which published its findings in 2014.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Report says cost of maintenance could soon reach £2m a week, including 24-hour patrols to avert fire risk

The Palace of Westminster will be at risk of a Notre Dame-style fire or a similar catastrophic event if MPs do not tackle the issue of funding refurbishments, a parliamentary committee has said.

Decisions about how and when to begin a full restoration of the building, which is Grade I-listed and a Unesco world heritage site, have been repeatedly delayed amid disagreement over how it should be done and spiralling costs.

Parliament is steeped in history, but too many parts of the estate are dangerous and squalid. The promised upgrade can’t come a minute too soon

Kemi Badenoch, mid-TV interview with Robert Peston at the House of Commons recently, was embarrassingly upstaged by a mouse. Just another day in a parliament building not fit for purpose.

Last week, a critical meeting between the prime minister and his more than 400 MPs plus assorted peers (who total another 800) happened in a room only big enough to accommodate 170. Consider that the Commons chamber itself seats only 430 of the total 650 MPs. That same day, exhibition boards went up around parliament explaining the “restoration and renewal” options for the Palace of Westminster. They are expected to be voted on as early as March.

Rupa Huq is Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton