Scottish Parliament maintenance costs increase by 50% in five years
The cost of upkeep at the “controversial” Holyrood building has gone up from £2.6 million in 2019/20 to £3.9m in 2024/25.
The maintenance costs for the Scottish Parliament have risen by 50 per cent in five years.
The cost of upkeep at the “controversial” Holyrood building has gone up from £2.6 million in 2019/20 to £3.9m in 2024/25.
The Scottish Lib Dems said urged the Scottish Parliament to “provide further detail” about the “sharp increase”.
The Scottish Conservatives said “hard-pressed taxpayers will be shocked” at the amount that is being spent and that “every possible step must be taken to prevent these costs escalating any further.”
The Scottish Parliament costs for maintenance is split into two contracts.
The high-level maintenance contract - which is the bill for the upkeep of all roofs, gutters, external building fabric and landscaping - was £1.3m in 2019/20. By 2024/25, this had gone up by 23 per cent to £1.6m.
The building maintenance contract - which covers refurbishment and upgrading of all mechanics electrics, and the inside of the building - was also £1.3m in 2019/20. This increased by 77 per cent to £2.3m.
According to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, prices increased by 26.6 per cent per cent between 2020 and April 2025.
This means that external maintenance actually cost less than the real-terms price in 2020, but that internal maintenance rose nearly three times the rate of inflation.
Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Jamie Greene said: “People will be shocked to see these costs rising by so much.
“There’s obviously been a sharp increase in a very short space of time, so I think it would be helpful if parliament could provide further detail as to why that’s happened.
“Repair and maintenance work is inevitable in a building of such a large scale, but it is important that people are clear about how their money is being spent.”
Scottish Conservative MSP Sue Webber said: “Hard-pressed taxpayers will be shocked that millions have been spent maintaining and repairing the Scottish Parliament.
“While some repairs will have been unavoidable, these should always be carried out at the lowest possible cost for the public.
“The Holyrood building has been plagued with issues from the outset due to its controversial design. At a time when Scots are already suffering because of SNP tax hikes, every possible step must be taken to prevent these costs escalating any further.”
The construction of the Scottish Parliament Building was controversial because of the rising cost and late opening.
The initial estimates in 1997 put the cost at between £10m and £40m. But the final cost ended up being more than 10 times this, and was confirmed as £414.4m in 2007.
Construction on the building started in June 1999 - just months after the first Scottish Parliament election.
It was scheduled to open in 2001 but did not do so until 2004.
There was a major public inquiry into the spiralling costs which criticised the management of the whole project.
The Scottish Parliament met at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh while the construction was ongoing.
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said:
“The Holyrood building functions well. Inflation, however, on both labour and materials has driven up maintenance costs over the past five years.
“These are inflationary pressures that all businesses and organisations will recognise.
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