Gareth Davies, head of National Audit Office, says situation shows ‘problems caused by underinvestment’ in buildings
Here are more lines from what Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said on his media interview round this morning.
Gibb claimed the government had been “world leading” in identifying schools with a problem caused by Raac (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete). He said:
We are world-leading in terms of identifying where Raac is in our school estate.
We’re talking about a small number of schools out of 22,500 schools, but we have conducted surveys since March last year, so we know where Raac is, and we’re sending in surveyors to identify Raac.
He said he expected the problem in schools which do have Raac in buildings to be resolved well before Christmas. Asked if it would be sorted out by then, he told LBC:
I suspect that will be all sorted out far sooner than Christmas.
We know that the 52 schools that we’ve already sent in … alternative accommodation has been found, mitigation, propping, whatever it is, has all happened in those 52 schools. I expect the same thing to happen in the remaining 104 schools.
He said the list of schools in England affected by Raac problems would be published before Friday. He said he thought all schools that would be on the list had already notified parents.
He said that 5% of bodies responsible for schools in England have still not responded to a questionnaire sent out by the Department for Education to allow it to assess the Raac risk. Speaking to Times Radio, he claimed that frustration with the bodies that have not responded partly explained Gillian Keegan’s outburst yesterday.
He said that he expected more cases of Raac in schools to be identified – although he said only 1% of surveys led to Raac being found.
He defended Rishi Sunak’s decision as chancellor to refuse the DfE’s request for funding for 200 schools to be rebuilt per year. He told Sky News:
We put in a bid for 200, but what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme with 50 a year, consistent with what we’d been doing since we came into office.
Of course we put in a bid for 200, but of course the Treasury then has to compare that with all the other priorities from right across Whitehall, from the health service, defence, and so on.
Children are not at school today because of the action the government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable.
It is a metaphor, frankly, for their sticking- plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals – always sticking plasters.
