London palace staff could face redundancy

By Julia Gregory, local democracy reporter

Staff at some of London’s most iconic palaces could be facing redundancy.

Historic Royal Palaces has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme for staff  at its historic tourist spots including The Tower of London, the public areas of Kensington Palace – which is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – and Henry VIII’s former home, Hampton Court Palace.

The Tower of London attracts 2.8m visitors a year, whilst Hampton Court Palace welcomed 914,992 visitors and Kensington Palace, saw 550,162 people in 2018 .

It also cares for the Banqueting House in Whitehall, where King Charles I was executed, Kew Palace, in Kew Gardens and Hillsborough Castle in  Northern Ireland.

The move comes as the heritage charity said the lockdown means it is facing a £96m shortfall this year.

It warned 1,100 staff, including the red jacketed Beefeaters who live at The Tower, they will see a 20 per cent cut in their pay packet from July until October and to brace themselves as compulsory redundancies are likely to follow.

HRP depends on visitors for 80 per cent of its income and the coronavirus pandemic is having a devastating effect on visitor attractions worldwide.

Announcing the move, chief executive John Barnes said the decision is heartbreaking. He said: “We are privileged to be the guardians of six remarkable buildings, but the dedicated team who care for them are the spirit of our charity, and we are heartbroken that it has come to this.”

“The closure of our six sites for three months has dealt a devastating blow to our finances, which we expect to continue for the rest of the financial year and to be compounded by the slow recovery of international tourism.”

He added:  “We have taken every possible measure to secure our financial position, but we need to do more to survive in the long term.  We simply have no choice but to reduce our payroll costs.”

Mick Ainsley, the London region organiser for the GMB union has urged the Government to step in with a support package to save jobs.

He said:  While we are very mindful of the potential wider damage to our cultural industry, our members at HRP and their families are a far greater priority than the jewels and centuries-old bricks and mortar that they look after.”