The V&A in Dundee could end up costing almost as much per square metre as the Scottish Parliament.
The gross floor plan prices for the two buildings are similar, a revelation that has intensified calls for a public inquiry into the revised £80.1 million tag for Kengo Kuma’s iconic waterfront creation.
The building industry uses a gross floor area calculation to work out the cost of a project by dividing the total building price by the size of the building.
The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood cost £414.4 million, 10 times the original estimate and a sum that sparked an inquiry by the late Conservative peer Lord Fraser.
With a floorspace of 29,500sq m, the project’s gross floor area cost worked out at £14,043 per sq m.
The V&A’s cost has soared from £45 million to £80.1 million. With a floor space of 6,119 sq m, according to published data, the gross floor area cost for the project now is £13,090 per sq m.
Although the difference between the two gross floor plan costs is less than £1,000, the Holyrood figure was for 2007 and eight years of inflation would have to be added to give a price for building it today.
The V&A at Dundee has not yet been built, however, and is only an estimate. As the public is aware, the costs of major building projects have a habit of over-running.
The final bill for the V&A will not be confirmed until the contractors move off site in 2017. Time will tell if it will be more than £80.1 million.
Eben Wilson, director of campaign group TaxpayerScotland, said: “To burden taxpayers with costs that nearly equal those of the Scottish Parliament building fiasco is a disgrace. Far too often the public sector seems to think it has a blank cheque from ordinary households to build expensive monuments.”
The risks of the V&A going over-budget were anticipated when the design was moved off river pilings.
Mr Wilson continued: “It looks like the project management has been sloppy and there has been lack of insight and control over the specifications.”
He said the public sector had again been shown to be unable to stop such overspends and was “spending our money like a drunk who won a lottery”.
Backing calls for an investigation, he believed it was unfair Scottish taxpayers were being asked “to support a public cultural entity that will no doubt always need funding.”
Dundee City Council has promised a comprehensive review of the project by chief executive David Martin, which will be monitored by Audit Scotland.
An Audit Scotland spokesman said: “We recognise concerns raised about the increased costs associated with the new V&A in Dundee.
“This is still a live policy issue and the council is considering its position so it would not be appropriate for us to investigate at this stage.”