A national Holocaust memorial will be built next to Parliament after ministers overrode local opposition to approve the project.

       Chris Pincher, the housing minister, signed off on the ￡100 million proposal on Thursday to build the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, which will be located in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

       It will stand as a focal point of national remembrance to the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, as well all other victims of Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides.

       The centre is due to open in 2024 and will comprise 23 large bronze sculptures and an underground learning centre.

       It will be built using ￡75 million of taxpayer funds and ￡25 million from charitable donations, and will be free to the public “in perpetuity”.

       Visiting the site with Holocaust survivors on Thursday, Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, said he hoped the memorial would be visited by millions of people annually and help to “educate and inform future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust”.

       The Board of Deputies of British Jews has also praised the move, stating that there was “something uniquely powerful about locating a memorial to the Holocaust right next to the centre of the UK’s democracy”.

       The decision overturned a previous ruling by Westminster Council, which last year decided to reject the plans in the face of local opposition and claims that it contravened planning rules on size, design and location.

       While the plan for a national memorial was first set in motion by David Cameron in 2013, the location has been criticised by some groups, including Historic England, on the grounds there are believed to be important archaeological remains located at the site.

       The fiercest opposition has come from the local resident group Save Victoria Tower Gardens (SVTC), which claims that the open space in the area should be protected as a local amenity.

       The group also claims that the need for additional security would add to congestion.

       Threatening to appeal the decision on Thursday, Baroness Deech, a crossbench peer and member of SVTC, told the BBC: “We passionately believe that the Holocaust should be remembered, but we believe that this ill-considered and damaging proposal will do a disservice to victims and survivors, and little to enhance understanding and respect.”

       However, Mr Pincher said the significance of the memorial far outweighed the loss of space, with Whitehall sources claiming on Thursday the site would take up just seven per cent of space in the park.

       They also pointed out that Mr Pincher’s decision was fully aligned with the planning inspector, who said that the “application should be approved”, and that other proposed sites had been found to be less suitable.

       In a letter confirming the plans would go ahead, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that the location next to the Palace of Westminster would ensure it “can rightly be considered a public benefit of great importance, meriting considerable weight in the heritage and planning balance”.

       Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “As the Holocaust moves from living memory to history, there could not be a more important time to build this memorial, in the shadow of Parliament, as a reminder for generations to come of what happened when anti-semitism and hatred were able to flourish.

       “The Holocaust is part of our shared history that everyone should know about and remember, and I’m proud that this UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is going to be built at the very heart of our democracy.”