Ministers are under pressure to spell out their plans to make schools safe from aerated concrete as pupils start the new term.
Children’s summer holidays are coming to an end and Parliament is returning from recess against a backdrop of uncertainty about how long disruption will last as any risks are mitigated.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt moved to reassure parents the Government would “spend what it takes” to address the problem, but Treasury sources later said money for repairs would come from the Department for Education’s (DfE) existing capital budget.
More than 100 schools and colleges have been told by the Government to fully or partially shut buildings following the recent collapse of a beam previously considered safe.
But more classrooms could be forced to shut as further assessments are made of the risks of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in buildings, the Government has admitted.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said it is a “scandal that as children are just returning to school ministers are still not being upfront about the scale of what we are facing”.
“It’s vital that they publish the list of all the schools as soon as possible,” she said.
“If they don’t do that, we’ll force a vote in the House of Commons to make sure that parents can know exactly what’s going on.
“This is completely unacceptable, children have seen so much disruption to their education and ministers need to get a grip on this because this is a department that is in complete chaos.”
