'More transparency' over £162m Dunard Centre funding required as parallels drawn with Scottish Parliament
The cost of the Dunard Centre has risen to £162m.
An Edinburgh MSP has called for more transparency and scrutiny over the funding of the capital’s new £162m concert hall as parallels are drawn between the project’s escalating costs and the building of the Scottish Parliament.
Miles Briggs, Conservative MSP for Lothian, has spoken out after it was revealed the cost of the Dunard Centre has more than tripled, with First Minister John Swinney announcing a further £20m of public funding in principle for the project this week.
READ MORE: First Minister John Swinney throws £20m lifeline to Dunard Centre with work to start “within weeks”.
Mr Swinney’s pledge brings the total Scottish Government contribution to £30m, with the additional public money leveraged by a commitment by US philanthropist Dr Carol Colburn Grigor, a long-term funder in the arts in Scotland, to donate a further £20m to get the project over the line.
The new centre has been heavily driven by Dr Grigor’s Dunard Fund, which originally pledged £35m to create the 1000-seater auditorium on a plot of land on St Andrew Square.
Mr Briggs said he supported the project to keep Edinburgh as a “cultural capital of the world”, but said it could not be built “at any cost”.
He said more scrutiny was required on why the original estimate of £45m had escalated to such a degree - and called for more transparency of the funding of the project as a whole.
Mr Briggs said: “We need to know if this figure of £162m is the final figure or is this just the latest award in funding?
“Given the growing concerns , and it is not just politicians but I think the public as well, we need that transparency over how much is this project going to cost
“We knew there were additional costs given delays and the change in the delivery of the project, but I am not quite sure what scrutiny there is - and what confidence there is - that is the final figure.”
The project was awarded £25m in City Deal Funding in 2022, with £20m split between Scottish and UK Government and a further £5m from the City of Edinburgh Council.
Mr Briggs added: “It is almost like the Scottish Parliament building - has this been a complete underestimation at the start of the City Deal and why was that ?
“When you look at most builds, the problem with additional spending comes towards the end , not before there are cranes in the sky.”
The Scottish Parliament building cost a total of £414m - ten times the initial cost of £40m.
Mr Swinney said the latest funding for the Dunard Centre would not be released in grant form unless certain perameters were met.
A Scottish Government statement added: “Funding provided by the Scottish Government is always made subject to conditions in adherence with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, as well as robust due diligence, to ensure value for money for the public purse.
“ All public funding is subject to a value for money test and Accountable Officer approval, as well as assessment to ensure compliance with the Subsidy Control Act 2022, before grants can be made.”
Work is due to begin on the Dunard Centre, which will serve as a permanent home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, “within weeks” after a new contract worth £162m was signed by Balfour Beatty on Wednesday night.
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A spokesman for Dunard Centre said: "As is to be expected with any major capital project, costs have risen as the project has evolved. Factors include inflation, which has had a significant impact on the cost of materials, as well as the impact of global events such as Covid, Brexit, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all of which have added delays, complexity and supply chain pressures that push costs up.
“ More than 70 per cent of our funding has been raised from private sources and the philanthropy at the heart of the project now stands - by some distance - as a record for a cultural project in Scotland."
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