Parents and pupils across the country preparing for the new school term face uncertainty and disruption over the crumbling concrete in the country’s schools. It is a building scandal which has been unfolding for decades – and does not just affect school buildings.
Why announce the risk from crumbling concrete in the country’s schools just days before the start of the new term?
Ministers have known for years that the cheap and lightweight building material called reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was at risk of structural failure. The Department for Education had identified 572 schools by May this year which might contain Raac, and work was under way to ensure measures were in place for pupils and staff.
The collapse of a single beam at one school prompted the safety alert. Schools minister Nick Gibb told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “A beam that had no sign that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed.” There were also other incidents of the ageing material failing without warning.
Has the government mishandled the crisis?
Ministers will be challenged over whether they should have acted more quickly to assess the scale of the problem in schools. The risk from structural failures in Raac, which was widely used from the 1950s to the 1980s, has been known for more than three decades.
The Building Research Establishment published an information paper in 1996 which identified cracking in Raac roof planks. It recommended regular inspections to mitigate the risk. In 2018, part of the roof of a primary school in Gravesend collapsed one weekend. Structural engineers said it was a “near miss”.
Despite the partial collapse, it was not until March 2022 that the Department for Education sent all responsible bodies a questionnaire to understand what work they carried out to identify Raac in their schools. The DfE focused on nearly 15,000 schools with buildings constructed between 1930 and 1990. Since summer 2021, the DfE’s corporate risk register, published in its annual report, shows as “critical and very likely” the risk of a building collapse which could cause death or injury.
What other public buildings may be unsafe?
NHS England wrote to all hospital trusts in 2019-20, asking them to assess their buildings for Raac.
A National Audit Office (NAO) report published in July said the survey found 41 buildings at 23 trusts contained the material, including seven hospitals with Raac present throughout.
The NAO report said the government has committed to eradicate Raac from the NHS estate by 2035 and allocated £685m over five years up to 2024-25 to mitigate immediate safety risks. West Suffolk hospital, a district general hospital in Bury St Edmunds, was built with Raac beams, and over four years has spent £65m installing safety measures.
Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, said heavy patients were treated on the ground floor of one hospital because it was considered unsafe to have them on higher floors.
The government said in July that it identified six buildings in the HM Courts & Tribunal Service estate containing Raac.
Could offices, shopping centres and residential blocks be at risk?
The Local Government Association says it believes municipal architects mainly used it in schools and offices, but it has been found in a wide range of buildings including shopping centres and homes. Extensive surveys will be required because there is no central register of its use.
