Labour blast Jeremy Hunt for failure to seek out extra money for RAAC riddled faculties
Labour have blasted Jeremy Hunt for failing to incorporate any new cash for faculties riddled with crumbling RAAC concrete in his Autumn Statement.
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson mentioned: “It frankly beggars belief that as schools crumble around the next generation, the government made no new investment in schools capital at the Autumn Statement. Only Labour will deliver the high and rising standards our children deserve”
Meanwhile the checklist of buildings discovered to have been constructed with a budget, bubbly concrete continues to develop, together with extra faculties, public buildings and council properties. It was broadly utilized in flat-rooved buildings constructed between 1950 and 1990.
It comes after intensive surveys discovered Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in three faculties in Stockport that had beforehand been given the all-clear. A council report reveals of the three, Bramall High School, must spend greater than £1.5 million on speedy work and putting in cellular school rooms to maintain youngsters in face-to-face training after RAAC was discovered within the ceiling of round 30% of the college.
Some 17 school rooms together with specialist expertise and science labs had been compelled to shut, in addition to kitchens, bathrooms and workers areas. Money for the non permanent buildings is popping out of native authorities budgets initially, and can ultimately be refunded by the Department for Education (DfE). But the large price of fixing the rooves of colleges throughout the nation will come out of the already squeezed present departmental price range, after Mr Hunt did not allocate any more money.
Elsewhere, Solihull’s Core theatre introduced it must shut till March after RAAC was discovered within the constructing. It joins theatres in Stockport, Dartford, Scarborough and Northampton in closing. And RAAC was present in 30 Aberdeen council properties, prompting the council to widen its inspections of housing inventory.
Daniel Kebede, basic secretary of the National Education Union mentioned: “Schools have already seen years of under-investment, and in far too many cases school buildings have drifted into serious disrepair. The Chancellor couldn’t even bring himself to fund urgent work on the school estate, following the RAAC scandal, which has brought such embarrassment to this Government.
“With underfunded and understaffed schools and colleges, and school buildings crumbling, the Government must prioritise investment in schools and colleges and fund a fair pay rise for staff next year.”
