Speeches by Lowe.

“Finally—before the Chairman cuts me off—given my knowledge of the DWP and HMRC, I think they are now both structurally flawed. You’ve got to do a lot from a governance point of view and from a cultural point of view to change the way they operate. Figure 4 in the Report deals with DWP, the Department for Education and …”

“But 37 consecutive years suggests that that is not working. Do you need to do something different?”

“Should I have asked James, maybe?”

“My question is for Andrew, I think. I see that you are a passionate Newcastle supporter. It is a great, passionate football club—love it. I also see that you have spent 23 years in the civil service, and you have worked in two of the worst-performing Departments: the DWP and HMRC. I think I am right in saying that the …”

“It must have cost tens of millions to do all the wretched gates that hold me up coming out of Parliament now. Who actually signed off on that?”

“I do not know if you saw that Anna wanted to ask a question. I do not want to take over the Chair, Geoffrey; it just seemed germane.”

“Does that include these wretched gates and everything else that has gone in? Is that all included or is that on top?”

“I know, Geoffrey, but if you take £1.5 million a week, by the crude maths that I employ, that is £75 million. What did it cost, Geoffrey—£46 million? There is a large slug if that is included.”

“I am with Anna on this: we need to know what we are deciding on, and I do not think anybody is quite clear on that. A lot needs to be done before this can be sold effectively to MPs and Members of the House of Lords—I assume they have to agree to it as well. I am a new boy; I was elected in ’24 and I have not been on t…”

“I am not going to go on. The only other question I have is about RAAC and asbestosis. If it needs to be dealt with, it has to be dealt with, particularly RAAC. How much is that likely to cost us? That I see as a necessity purchase rather than an arbitrary purchase.”

“For failure to deliver accounts on time.”

“Lastly, on the £1.5 million a week that you are spending on what I think you called refurb—”

“The gates you put on the outside—who signed all that off?”

“I must confess that I am quite bemused about this whole thing. I want to ask a few questions—ostensibly about cost, although I think that cost is pretty irrelevant at this stage. Is the objective of this exercise to basically do necessary repairs to the UNESCO heritage building, or is it to provide better accommodation…”

“I listen in horror. I built the stadium at Southampton, which was not as big a project as this, but we built it on budget and on time. The only way we did that was by identifying what the design was, what we wanted and what it was going to cost. The other thing we did, which you have got to do in this situation, is bol…”

“How many public sector employees have been fired for failure?”

“I want to understand this. Is the IAAP made up of people with construction experience? There does not seem to be much construction experience on the two guiding boards.”

“Shouldn’t it be the same?”

“How much are you factoring in AI, which is, in all likelihood, going to reduce the number of staff that MPs need rather than increase it? There will likely be less demand for offices and accommodation, and more opportunity to use technology. Is that being factored into the equation?”

“This is my final question, because I can feel that the Chairman is itching. Are you looking to help the financial sector or, to Clive’s point, the building sector? What sectors are you looking to achieve benefit for, above all else?”