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About 1,500 more schools in England could potentially contain crumbling concrete, the education secretary has said.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, told the BBC that around 10 per cent - or 1,500 English schools - are yet to return the surveys sent out by the Department for Education to identify RAAC in buildings.
Elsewhere, the government is coming under increasing pressure to publish a full list of the schools affected.
Are you a parent whose child has been affected by RAAC closures? E-mail andy.gregory@independent.co.uk
It was also claimed that the prime minister was warned of a “critical risk to life” from crumbling schools in 2021 when he was chancellor.
Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said it is “vital” that the government publish the list of all RAAC-constructed buildings that are dangerous “as soon as possible”.
Ms Keegan has vowed to publish a list of the schools affected by the concrete crisis this week.
Hundreds more schools could be affected by RAAC - Keegan
Gillian Keegan said hundreds more schools could be affected by the RAAC crisis which has forced more than 100 to close so far.
Pressed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the education secretary said “it could be hundreds more”, adding that she has “taken a very cautious approach”.
She also sought to defend the Conservatives’ record when challenged over cuts to school rebuilding.
It was put to her that, while senior officials recommended 300-400 schools be rebuilt every year, the Government initially funded 100 a year and Rishi Sunak cut that to 50 a year when he was chancellor, years after ministers were warned about the risks of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete RAAC
She said: "I’ve just announced 239 school rebuilding projects", but could not indicate how many a year, saying only "as soon as possible".
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said inflation would have to fall before the Government could cut taxes (Danny Lawson/PA)
Parent ‘happy’ children back at school despite RAAC issues
Outside Crossflatts Primary School in Bingley, West Yorkshire, parent Mohammad Ali said it is a relief that all the children are back despite the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) issues.
Mr Ali said: "We’re happy because the kids are very happy and have been looking forward to coming back to school after six weeks.
"The school has told us all the problems and has kept us informed."
Sunak cut spending on school rebuilding as chancellor - Labour
Labour has doubled down on its bid to personally link Rishi Sunak with the RAAC crisis which has forced more than 100 schools to close, Archie Mitchell reports.
Analysis by the party, based on figures from the National Audit Office, showed spending on school rebuilding in 2019-20 was £765 million, but after Sunak became chancellor this dropped to £560 million in 2020-21 and as little as £416 million in 2021-22, a fall of 41 per cent overall.
Labour said the cuts came despite warnings from the Department for Education that the cost of returning schools to satisfactory conditions would double between 2015-16 and 2020-21.
Labour links Sunak to RAAC scandal
It came a day after the party launched its latest attack ad, claiming Mr Sunak does not think schools should be safe.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Rishi Sunak bears huge culpability for his role in this debacle: he doubled down on Michael Gove’s decision to axe Labour’s schools rebuilding programme and now the chickens have come home to roost – with yet more disruption to children’s education.
“Labour warned time and again about the risks posed by the crumbling schools estate under the Conservatives but were met with complacency, obstinacy and inaction.”
Cuts to school building programme not to blame for RAAC scandal - Keegan
Education secretary Gillian Keegan sought to defend the Conservatives’ record when challenged over cuts to school rebuilding.
It was put to her on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that, while senior officials recommended 300-400 schools be rebuilt every year, the government initially funded 100 a year and Rishi Sunak cut that to 50 a year when he was chancellor, years after ministers were warned about the risks of RAAC
She said: "I’ve just announced 239 school rebuilding projects", but could not indicate how many a year, saying only "as soon as possible".
She said the Department for Education is going "over and above" what it needs to do, stressing that "responsible bodies" are ultimately responsible for the buildings.
"We’ve delivered much better value for money, much more schools have been rebuilt, much more schools are going to be rebuilt, we’ve got a grip of Raac," she said.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said pupils must expect lower results this year (James Manning/PA)
Rishi Sunak was warned of ‘critical risk to life’ in school concrete crisis two years ago
Rishi Sunak was warned of a “critical risk to life” from crumbling schools when he was chancellor, it has been claimed.
Jonathan Slater, the former head of the Department for Education, said officials were aware of the need to rebuild between 300 and 400 schools a year while Mr Sunak occupied No 11 Downing Street in 2021.
Mr Slater told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme DfE was denied the funding to fix the schools.
“It was frustrating,” Mr Slater said.
Archie Mitchell reports:
We’ll publish full list of affected schools this week - Keegan
Education secretary Gillian Keegan has vowed to publish a list of the schools affected by the concrete crisis this week.
Asked whether it is possible that parents will send their children to a school without knowing it is on the list, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "Well, we’re hoping that’s not the case, because we’ve spoken via the caseworker with each one of the schools and we’ve given them the template (letter to inform parents) and we’re just going to double-check that.
"We will publish the list, but I do want to double-check that the school has had the opportunity - because not all the schools are back yet - to tell all parents."
Pressed further, she said: "We’ll publish it this week."
A taped off section inside Parks Primary School in Leicester (Jacob King/PA
Breaking: 1,500 schools yet to return RAAC surveys
About 1,500 schools in England have not yet returned RAAC surveys, meaning they could- potentially be affected by the dangerous concrete, the education secretary has said.
More to follow...
104 schools classed as ‘critical’ - Keegan
Some 104 schools out of the 156 identified by the government as being affected by RAAC are classed as “critical”, the education secretary has said.
Gillian Keegan told BBC Breakfast the 104 schools were being examined as a matter of urgency and emergency procedures for structures have been put in place.
The education secretary told BBC Breakfast: "There’s 104 that are not mitigated that are being mitigated right now. So that’s how many are affected."
Their status changed to critical after an incident in August where a panel fell from a roof that had previously been assessed as non-critical, she said.
She said 52 that had already been classed as critical were already "done". Potentially hundreds of surveys still need to be done, Ms Keegan said.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) is a lightweight building material used from the 1950s up to the mid-1990s, but is now assessed to be at risk of collapse (PA)
Propping companies being sent in to hold up crumbling schools - education secretary
A national “propping” company is being sent to schools affected by crumbling concrete to help support structures in buildings at risk, the education secretary has said.
Gillian Keegan also told BBC Breakfast that eight surveying companies are now examining schools across the country potentially affected by dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Three temporary accommodation companies are also working with the government and schools affected, she added.
“Normally we wouldn’t do this - the responsible bodies would do it - but to make it much more efficient, we’ve centrally taken that on board,” she told the programme.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is preparing to inform Parliament of the Government’s plans to address the safety risk of aerated concrete in school buildings (PA)
No immediate risk to safety of pupils in schools, Scottish minister says
Public buildings in Scotland containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) pose an “immediate risk to safety” to school pupils and hospital patients, a Scottish government minister has said.
Wellbeing economy secretary Neil Gray said investigations are underway to assess the scale of buildings in Scotland containing the collapse-risk concrete.
The Scottish government has said the lightweight concrete is present in 35 schools in Scotland, with local authorities checking which other buildings it was used on, including hospitals and social housing.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show programme, Mr Gray said: “At the moment, there is no immediate risk to people using these buildings and that is why we continue to support our local authority partners, NHS boards and others, that have Raac in their buildings to ensure that remains the case, and if there are issues to be resolved, that mitigations are taken to ensure people’s safety.”
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2023-09-04 09:01:38Z
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