Jeremy Hunt under fire after Treasury says no new cash to fix Raac in schools
Jeremy Hunt under fire after Treasury says no new cash to fix Raac in schools
Chancellor had pledged to ‘spend what ever it takes’ on concrete crisis but repair costs will come from existing education budget
That’s the story now; it was different in the morning.
The morning article included:
“He added: “The moment the education secretary has heard about any problem in a school, any risk to children, she has acted.
“And we have 22,000 schools in the country and there has been since that incident a huge programme going through this Raac/asbestos issue because we want to be absolutely sure that every child is safe.
“And we have then made sure as soon as we have information of any risk that something is done to mitigate that risk.”
Hunt, who later told the BBC that the government would “spend what it takes to sort out this problem as quickly as possible”, denied the problem could cause a repeat of lockdown-style teaching, where substantial numbers of children missed out on attending classes for long periods of time.”
A day is a long time in politics.
So they have rotting concrete, and fixing the rotting concrete is complicated by the presence of asbestos in some places. I wonder if it's occurred to them that lead paint is almost certainly present in some areas as well ...
Not just yet. Give it a week or so.
Well at least Hunt is showing the same level of numeracy as his recent predecessors.
Christ alive.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Jeremy Hunt has been accused of abandoning children disrupted by the concrete crisis in schools after the government admitted there will be no extra cash for the education budget to cover repair costs and closures.
The deepening row over the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in schools, which is threatening to dominate parliament this week, comes after the chancellor said the government would “spend what it takes” to deal with the crisis.
Hunt told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he would not speculate on the potential cost of fixing the problem, but said: “We will spend what it takes to make sure children can go to school safely, yes.”
Last year the Office of Government Property issued a notice that stated: “Visually, Raac planks may look the same as precast concrete, and may be hidden above false ceilings.”
Phil Purnell, professor of materials and structures at the University of Leeds, said Raac “planks” were reinforced with steel bars and dipped in a coating such as bitumen to prevent water getting in.
As parliament returns, Labour plans to put forward a humble address – an arcane parliamentary mechanism sometimes used to demand papers from government departments – to force the publication of a list of affected schools.
The original article contains 1,125 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I believe they're in "bat it away until it's the next government's problem" mode, sadly. Release just enough money to put kids in sheds when forced to, and hope nothing big collapses.
On an unrelated note, senior minister's spouses are starting to eye up shares in Portakabin.
Jeremy Hunt is a ... well, he's a Hunt.