Campaign group Republic calls for monarch to vacate palace, which needs repairs worth £150m, so it can be turned into a museum

Campaigners for an elected head of state have called for Buckingham Palace to be turned into a museum for the nation, after the royal household said the Queen may have to move out while £150m of repairs takes place.

Officials revealed that the monarch’s London residence needs a total overhaul to tackle a series of problems common to homes occupied by older people: the palace needs rewiring, new plumbing, asbestos removing, and redecoration inside and out. The last time it had a new lick of paint was 1952.

“One option is for the palace to be vacated; we’re getting experts to look at these scenarios and cost them for us,” a palace official said at a briefing on the Queen’s royal accounts. The official added: “The initial estimate for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace looks like £150m.”

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The campaign group Republic called on the Queen to permanently move out of the palace, so it can be turned into a museum and art gallery. “If the taxpayer is footing the bill, the taxpayer should reap the reward,” said its chief executive, Graham Smith. “Buckingham palace already houses one of the world’s greatest art collections – so let’s see it handed back to the people.”

He suggested the Queen should move to the monarchy’s official headquarters at St James’s palace, and pointed out that she had a portfolio of other stately homes across the UK.

Smith said: “Buckingham palace is national property treated like a private home occupied by a rogue tenant. Years of failure on the part of the royals have left the buildings in desperate need of repair.

“MPs and campaigners have long called on the palace to be opened up to tourists all year round, to pay for costs of maintenance. The royals have refused. So it’s time they moved out and the palace turned into a world-class museum and art gallery.”

The Queen spends about a third of the year hosting garden parties, receptions, investitures and other events at the palace. One official described it as the “centre of national life”.

An in-house palace team produced a 10-year property maintenance plan for the palace, which is being examined by external experts, officials said.

The proposal comes after it emerged that MPs may to have to leave Westminster to allow an estimated £3bn project to modernise parliament to take place. Greg Hands, the chief secretary to the Treasury, noted the difference in price of the two projects.