LONDON (AP) – Buckingham Palace needs a taxpayer-funded face-lift if it’s to remain fit for the queen.
The London home of Queen Elizabeth II hasn’t been upgraded since just after World War II, and needs urgent infrastructure work to fix plumbing, electrical cables and heating, palace officials said Friday.
The work will cost some 369 million pounds ($459 million) over 10 years and is considered critical to safeguarding the building from fire or flood damage. If the work goes as planned, the palace won’t need another renovation until 2067, when Prince William would be 85, or five years younger than the current monarch.
Palace officials acknowledge that the sum is vast, but hope the public will accept the expenditure for a building that symbolizes a nation.
“We take the responsibility that comes with receiving these public funds extremely seriously indeed,” said Tony Johnstone-Burt, the official in charge of administering the royal family’s affairs. “Equally, we are convinced that by making this investment in Buckingham Palace now we can avert a much more costly and potentially catastrophic building failure in the years to come.”