PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service (18 December 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the property was in Millbank that was offered to the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation as a site for the Holocaust Learning Centre in late 2016; and for what reasons the offer was not taken up.

Asked by:
Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative)

Millbank Tower was considered as a possible site for the Memorial and Learning Centre. The proposal was tied to the development of the wider site: to date, there is no evidence of redevelopment coming forward and occupational office leases have now been extended to 2022. Victoria Tower Gardens was preferred by the UKHMF Board as the outstanding candidate site for the following reasons:

• its relevance as a commemorative garden of Britain’s national conscience, already containing significant memorial sculptures, marking momentous historic events, with significance for the struggle for human rights, that remain relevant today and will do so in the future;
• it provides an iconic location adjoining Parliament, sitting along the riverfront immediately next to the House of Lords;
• it is visually prominent and adjacent to one of the most visited parts of London, within easy reach of a major tube station and many bus routes;
• the resonance of being next to Parliament and on the timeless banks of the Thames is exceptional; and
• under the shadow of Victoria Tower, the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre would question the impacts of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides on our own Parliament.

Answered by:
Sir Jake Berry (Conservative)
21 December 2018