The tenth anniversary of the opening of The Senedd building of the National Assembly for Wales will be marked on St David’s Day, 1 March 2016. The building may be presented as
the product of architectural patronage and representative of the collective
aspiration of the people at that time. Any such claim is contested in a draft paper available on the Academia.com website.
https://www.academia.edu/21105408/Ruling_From_a_Rented_House
That is a case study of the process of housing the newly devolved regional government of Wales from 1997 to 2006. It examines the proposition that the location of the National Assembly and subsequent commissioning of a new debating chamber designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership was the consequential outcome of a series of events rather than the intentional creation of a building which might symbolise a new form of regional democracy.
https://www.academia.edu/21105408/Ruling_From_a_Rented_House
That is a case study of the process of housing the newly devolved regional government of Wales from 1997 to 2006. It examines the proposition that the location of the National Assembly and subsequent commissioning of a new debating chamber designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership was the consequential outcome of a series of events rather than the intentional creation of a building which might symbolise a new form of regional democracy.
The events under examination may be summarised as follows;
·
At the outset there was an attempt to minimise
the anticipated costs of housing the Assembly and a dispute arose on the value
of the assumed location, Cardiff City Hall.
·
A wider bidding process then ensued between
rival locations within and outside the capital which may be seen to have been divisive.
·
The final decision was made between a location
at The Pierhead, Cardiff or Bute Square, Cardiff, the final choice favouring
the former. In either case the seat of regional government would be part of a
commercial property development.
·
A competition was then mounted to select an
architect for the debating chamber, The Senedd, which would be built at the The
Pierhead.
·
During its procurement and construction concern
over mounting costs resulted in the dismissal and alienation of the architect.
·
In the course of events there were several
changes of leadership and little continuity or personal commitment to the new
building.
·
In the ensuing political and public debate
concerning the building some politicians adopted the language of architectural
patronage to defend and rationalise decisions.
The paper offers some observations on the true cost of housing the Assembly.
A report published in March 2008 by the Wales Audit Office stated that the cost of the Senedd increased from £12M in 1997 to £69.6M in 2006. That was an increase of 580% compared with the original budget forecast in April 1997 (phase 1) and was four years and 10 months late.
The conclusions of the Audit Office may be considered generous in some respects.
It will be noted that in the course of events the figure
originally stated in the 1997 White Paper as the indicative cost of ‘setting
up’ the Assembly was £12m-£17m
The lower figure of £12m formed the basis for bids to house
the Assembly.
The following figures may more accurately reflect the actual
cost
Capitalised
rental of Crickhowell House
£1.5m
pa £25m
(Note ‘market value’ of capitalised rent circa £40m to
investor – see below)
Concession
of 200 car parking spaces £0.688m
Initial
costs of alteration to accommodate Assembly £14.8m
(to2000)
Expenditure
on Pierhead Building £3m??
Construction
of TheSenedd £69.6m
Total Circa £112m+ £112m+
This can then be expressed as;
·
936%
over the original budget of £12m or
·
658% over the upper limit set for Cardiff City
Hall at £17m
The foregoing may then be seen to more accurately reflect
the costs of ‘setting up’ the regional government.
Since that‘setting up’ the Welsh Government has also
established new sub-regional offices in Merthyr Tydfil, Llandudno Junction,
Carmarthen and Abersystwyth. The total cost was in the region of £91.5m which
included Llandudno Junction (6,500 m2) at £22m and Aberystwyth at £21m[i].
Coupled with the capital cost of the ‘decentralisation’ of
the Welsh Government administration were financial incentives for staff
required to move if their posts were relocated. Relocation packages for staff
moving to the Merthyr Tydfil office cost £2.9m alone - £2.1m of which was for
excess travel fares. It was reported that "there was so much resistance
from staff due to move from their Cardiff offices to Merthyr Tydfil",
excess fares were subsidised for five years instead of the standard three[ii].
The overall value for money from the programme was
"uncertain", according to a report by the Auditor General for Wales on
the Assembly relocation strategy of 25 March 2014[iii]
A conclusion of that report was that:
“The Location Strategy had clear objectives, but the Welsh
Government did not establish effective governance arrangements until 2008 and
underestimated the cost of the Programme”[iv]
Finally some overall comment is made on ownership. In March 2014 it was announced that Ty Hywel (formerly
Crickhowell House)had been acquired by a family of private investors based in
Kuwait for £40.5m from the owners, Aprirose[i]
We have then a situation where the Senedd building, which it
was claimed would, in its symbolic form, represent the open, modern democracy of
Wales, is inextricably joined to a rented building. This then presents an
interesting variation on David Harvey’s observations on collective symbolic
capital and monopoly rents(Harvey 2012 pps 103-109).
[i]http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/national-assembly-wales-office-acquired-6770330
[iii]http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/llandudno-junction-915m-welsh-government-6875070
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