Corporate event management: Palace of Westminster to be opened as a corporate event venue

Date: 19/12/2011

If ever there was a venue designed to impress then it is the Palace of Westminster and soon these powers may be unleashed as a private members' club.

Areas which are usually only open to MPs could be used to host impressive corporate conferences and dinners under the new plans.

Not officially released, the outlines have been seen by the Sunday Times after documents were leaked to the paper.

It seems that in this day and age no one is immune to austerity measures and parliament is considering ways of cashing in on its assets.

If carried out then £53 million could be made in five years, an estimate suggests, as parliament would become the most exclusive private members' club in London.

A highlight of the venue would be businessmen and women being able to conduct their meetings with a view of the Thames from parliament's terrace.

Impressing clients would not be difficult in such surroundings, though fees would be £2,000 a year for the members.

Corporate venue hire would never be the same again under the plans, which would mean that £20,000 could buy businesses the use of Westminster Hall for functions.

As the oldest part of the parliament building it is full of history and is the place where Nelson Mandela spoke to politicians and where the Queen mother lay in state.

There would be some limitations, however. In order to maintain the exclusivity of the venue it would only be available to hire ten times per year.

The Met Office, who are a trading fund inside the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, have recently found their own innovative way of raising cash.

They have teamed up with an environmentally friendly clothing company, Rapanui, in order to produce t-shirts for sale with variations of their famous weather symbols emblazoned on them. ADNFCR-2060-ID-801243457-ADNFCR