Education secretary beneath fireplace for opening ‘Pandora’s field’ on concrete disaster

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has come beneath fireplace from colleagues for her “unilateral” choice to find out which college buildings want to shut as a part of the concrete disaster, Sky News has realized.

Ministers elsewhere in Whitehall worry she has opened a “Pandora’s box” by setting a extra cautious than mandatory commonplace that would have an effect on an enormous array of public buildings, together with housing inventory, native authority buildings and the navy property.

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The training secretary has made clear she took essentially the most cautious of the choices offered by officers over which buildings to close final week.

Sky News understands that the choice was signed off by the training staff in Number 10 with the PM’s data.

However there was no cupboard workplace assembly and no ministerial follow-up for days after the difficulty emerged.

The Department for Education “belatedly” shared the technical recommendation on why they shut college with others in Whitehall – a few of whom disagree it reveals a have to shut faculties

Sky News understands she “informed” the related Whitehall committees, which have been coping with the difficulty of crumbling concrete for years. However, she didn’t absolutely seek the advice of or safe settlement for her transfer, believing she wanted to maneuver quick

Ministers are fearful they might now face huge disruption and spiralling prices if different public buildings are actually held to the identical precedent set within the Department for Education.

“This is suboptimal,” mentioned a senior Whitehall determine. “She has made a unilateral decision. It’s not been resolved, and it’s a bit of a mess.”

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Sources near the training secretary say the choice was by no means supposed to behave as a precedent for the reason that college property is exclusive. “We are being over-cautious,” mentioned an training supply.

There are tens of 1000’s of faculty buildings in disparate elements of the nation and sometimes wouldn’t have easy accessibility to property managers, screens or specialists who can monitor the state of buildings, and the buildings themselves are unusually crowded.

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However, there may be concern elsewhere that the choice by Ms Keegan might nonetheless appear as if a precedent, and if different public buildings aren’t held to the identical commonplace they must repair them or face authorized threat and political stress.

Responsibility for the difficulty will now fall to the Government Property Agency, however ministers are already involved concerning the implications for budgets.

“There is a big fear this is going to spiral,” mentioned a Tory supply.