Two firms pricing stalled £95m Victoria Tower overhaul

Just two firms are bidding for the chance to refurbish Parliament’s Victoria Tower whose overhaul has been held up because of a procurement blunder.

Bidding for the £95m job, which had been due to be start this year, is being rerun because of concerns over the wording of tender documents.

Building understands that Wates and Sir Robert McAlpine, which carried out work on the Elizabeth Tower, sent in bids last month.

Bam, which had been running the rule over the job and tendered it originally, has decided not to bid and nor has Lendlease who project sources said had expressed some initial interest. A Walter Lilly team which priced the job first time around is also understood not to have rebid it.

A winner is due to be announced by the end of the year with work starting next spring, although much of the initial phase will involve wrapping the tower in scaffolding. The job is expected to take six years to complete.

The work, which is not part of the wider Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, involves repairing the tower’s masonry, windows, cast-iron roof, rainwater drainage and flagpole.

The stonework has deteriorated to such an extent that a crash deck has been installed around part of the tower to make sure people below are not hit by falling masonry.

The last significant repairs were completed more than 30 years ago in the early 1990s.

The tower was finished in 1860 and sits at the south-west corner of the Palace of Westminster. It is around 2m taller than the Elizabeth Tower.