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Hundreds more schools at risk from crumbling concrete
Sunak denies responsibility as he faces questions about lack of funding for rebuilding schemes when chancellor
Remedial work being carried out at Mayflower Primary School in Leicester, which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). Picture date: Monday September 4, 2023.
DOWNING STREET admitted hundreds more schools could be affected by problems with crumbly concrete as it denied PM Rishi Sunak blocked a funding request to rebuild more schools when he was chancellor.
Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) from May 2016 to August 2020, said today that the Treasury knew there was a “critical risk to life” if the schools programme was not funded.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that up to 400 schools a year need to be replaced, but the DfE got funding for 100 while he was the senior official, which was “frustrating.”
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