Palace Refurbishment May Force Queen To Move Out

The Queen may need to relocate from Buckingham Palace while refurbishment work is carried out, according to royal sources.The historic building is in need of an estimated £150m overhaul and palace officials are considering moving the monarch out while the work is done.
The Queen spends around a third of the year at her official residence, which has not been redecorated since 1952.

The building has old plumbing, ageing wiring and significant amounts of asbestos which need to be removed.
"One option is for the palace to be vacated. We're getting experts to look at these scenarios and cost them for us," said the royal source.
"The initial estimate for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace looks like £150m refurbishment.
"That depends on how you go about refurbishment, whether you do it in parts or the whole thing (at once)."
Buckingham Palace has been the Queen's official London home throughout her reign and for a period before.
The last time she left for any length of time was during World War Two when she was moved to Windsor Castle with her sister Princess Margaret.
It comes as the release of the royal accounts shows the monarchy cost the taxpayer £35.7m for the second year running - the equivalent of 56p for each person in Britain.
The figures also show a dramatic increase in the cost of travel for the royal household, with costs rising from £4.2m to £5.1m.
The royal household made a total of 63 journeys costing £10,000 or more in the past financial year.
Among the most expensive was an official visit to Colombia and Mexico made by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, which cost £446,159.
Prince Charles' visit to the Middle East in February cost £262,212.
A royal source said the monarchy could expect an annual funding cut of between £1m and £1.5m if plans for further Scottish devolution are approved.
The cuts could occur if profits from the Crown Estate in Scotland are retained by the Scottish Parliament rather than the UK Parliament in a year's time.
But both the Scottish and UK governments said they did not expect devolution to have any negative impact on Scotland's contribution to funding the monarchy.
A UK Treasury spokesman said: "Scottish taxpayers will continue to fund a full and fair share of the sovereign grant.
"The grant will not be adversely affected by devolution - under the Sovereign Grant Act it cannot be reduced."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "There would be no change in Scotland's contribution to the Sovereign Grant through general taxation."