Buckingham Place is to undergo a 10-year refurbishment costing £369 million, the Royal Household has announced, reports BBC.

The Queen will remain in residence during the work, to begin next April.

Ageing cables, lead pipes, wiring and boilers will be replaced, many for the first time in 60 years, owing to fears about potential fire and water damage.

Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Queen's Household, said phased works offered the "best value for money" while keeping the palace running.

The works will be funded by a temporary increase in the Sovereign Grant, as recommended by the Royal Trustees, who include the prime minister and chancellor.

This funding change will require MPs' approval.

Mr Johnstone-Burt said: "We take the responsibility that comes with receiving these public funds extremely seriously indeed; equally, we are convinced that by making this investment in Buckingham Palace now we can avert a much more costly and potentially catastrophic building failure in the years to come."

As Her Majesty's administrative headquarters, the Queen spends a third of the year hosting events at Buckingham Palace.

When in town, she holds weekly audiences with the prime minister, and every year welcomes more than 50,000 people as guests to state banquets, dinners, receptions and garden parties.

The palace has 775 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms.

It has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837, playing host to a stream of historical figures, including a seven-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Charles Dickens, the US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and John F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi - who wore a loin cloth and sandals to tea with King George V - Neil Armstrong and Nelson Mandela.

The occupied royal palaces are held in trust for the nation by the Queen but the cost of maintaining them falls on the government.

In 2014, MPs criticized the Royal Household for mismanaging its finances.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee said that the Royal Household was "not looking after nationally important heritage properties adequately", saying that in March 2012, 39% of the royal estate was "below what the household deemed to be an acceptable condition".