Crumbling government lets schools collapse

Coming to power in 2010, the Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition took a red pen to many of the Labour Government’s programmes, not least the Building Schools for the Future, an ambitious building plan for secondary schools. The Coalition Government scrapped this two months after the general election, citing it “bureaucratic and wasteful”.

In February 2021 stark warnings were given that RAAC, the cheap, bubbly concrete, was life-expired and liable to collapse without warning.

In March 2022 capital spending by the Department for Education was around £4.9bn, the lowest recorded since 2009-10 and out of 1,105 school rebuilding projects nominated for funding only 61 were successful.

When Rishi Sunak was Chancellor, spending on the school rebuilding programme alone fell by 41%, from £765m in 2019 to £416m in 2021: funding that could have remediated schools with dangerous RAAC in their walls and ceilings.

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, might cry “don’t blame me” when some schools were forced to close just four days before the start of the winter term this September (2023) but she is said to have known about the issue, but hoped to cover it up until after the next General Election.

Our children have suffered massively disrupted education throughout the pandemic, many in my constituency are suffering increasing hunger due to the cost of living crisis - and now they have to be decanted at short notice. The Government needs to get its house - and its schools - in order and not comfort itself with a patronising statement that most schools are not affected: 156 schools with 52 at imminent risk of collapse is a lethal number.