“Saving measures” can be three times as expensive – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country

– We will stop two of the buildings that were planned. We do not want to have such a large government quarter, said Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedums (Sp) to news in May almost two years ago. The revised national budget was just around the corner, and Vedum had just presented the government’s plan to scrap two new buildings in the new government quarter. – We then plan to save NOK 4-5 billion, he said. But will it really be any cheaper to scrap buildings B and E in the last construction stage of the project? No, according to preliminary estimates in a report which is not available to the public, but which news has seen. 9 billion In fact, the report from Statsbygg concludes that it will cost three times as much to use existing buildings as to build the two buildings. Building the two buildings will cost 3.1 billion. But using existing buildings will cost NOK 9.1 billion, according to the estimate. The recommendation from Statsbygg is therefore crystal clear: Both the B and E blocks should be built to achieve jobs for 4,100 employees, as was originally planned. – By using nearby buildings, you will theoretically be able to achieve the desired capacity. But it will be a significantly more expensive alternative than building the government quarter as planned with construction stages 1, 2 and 3, writes Statsbygg. Nor will it be possible to upgrade existing properties to the same level of security, according to the agency. One expensive element is the so-called perimeter security, which is a physical security of a specific area. SCRAPED? In this picture, buildings E and B are drawn in as originally planned. But the government’s policy is not to build them. Photo: Statsbygg Heavy warning Responsibility for the government quarter previously lay with the Sp-led Ministry of Local Government and District Affairs. But in October, the new digitization and administration minister Karianne Tung (Ap) took over responsibility. In Politisk kvarter this week, she pointed to the new estimates that news has now gained access to: – It is the government’s policy that we still wish not to build them and rehabilitate existing buildings instead. But preliminary calculations show that it will be three times as expensive to use an existing building as to build a new one, she said. Tung further announced that she would go “properly down to the decision-making basis” before the government takes a decision on what will happen next. – I am concerned that we use every single tax kroner as efficiently as possible, she said. State Secretary in the ministry, Thomas Norvoll (Ap), says the following to news about when a decision may come: – The government will take a position on the further work with construction stage 3 when more reliable calculations are available. When this will happen, it is too early to say anything about, he says to news. Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) does not want to comment on the matter



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