Schools will not need to pay to repair crumbling concrete, minister says

Schools affected by collapse-risk concrete is not going to need to pay for repairs out of their budgets, the training secretary has insisted.

Gillian Keegan advised Sky News there might be no new cash to repair the issue, however the prices might be coated by the Department for Education (DfE)..

There has been a rising row over who can pay to choose up the invoice for repairs to bolstered autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) after the federal government introduced final week that greater than 100 colleges must shut or partially shut due to the dangers related to it.

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Ms Keegan mentioned ministers had already procured inventory of moveable cabins for colleges that want momentary lodging – and the DfE was paying for this “directly”.

She mentioned: “We have eight structural surveying firms who go in and do the surveys.

“We have three portacabin suppliers, so we have laid up a inventory of portacabins so that folks will be ready rapidly to have the ability to try this in the event that they want momentary lodging. And we have additionally checked out a propping firm that is nationwide.

“The Department for Education will pay for all of that.”

Unions have been angered by uncertainty about which prices might be coated by authorities, calling for transparency on whether or not headteachers might be reimbursed for mitigation expenditure.

Asked if colleges which can be already strapped for money should discover extra money, Ms Keegan insisted: “No, we will pay for that.”

Asked if the cash will come out of college budgets, Ms Keegan mentioned: “No. It’s coming out of the Department for Education.”

However, Ms Keegan couldn’t say how a lot funding can be ringfenced in direction of the difficulty.

She mentioned the federal government did not have the prices for this but – however admitted it was more likely to price “many, many millions of pounds”.

On Sunday Chancellor Jeremy Hunt mentioned he would “spend what it takes” to deal with the issue, however Treasury sources later mentioned cash for repairs would come from the Department for Education’s (DfE) present capital price range.