The crisis escalated against the background of a statement by Schools’ Minister Nick Gibb about Rishi Sunak rejecting all previous calls to repair dubious buildings.
The ministers immediately blamed the lazy heads of the mayor’s office, saying that one of the 20 councils did not answer whether their schools’ walls contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, known as RAAC.
Mr. Gibb claimed the Department of Education had requested the Treasury to allocate funds to build or renovate 200 schools each year in 2021. However, then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak decided to stick to the previous goals of 50 reconstructions per year.
Jonathan Slater, former top civil servant of the Department for Education, stated yesterday that Mr. Sunak had halved funding for classroom demolition. The Prime Minister claimed in return that assertions he cut funding for school restoration are “utterly wrong”.
Despite admitting that the Treasury had rejected requests for additional funding, Mr. Gibb defended the government’s reputation. Giving an interview to Sky News, he also noted that they are more active in this regard than any other government in the world.
“What we are clear about is that no child, no member of staff will be in a room that has RAAC.”
Nick Gibb also mentioned that the full list of schools with the killer concrete will be presented online before Friday. The ministers delayed its publishing to check its accuracy. This comes as Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is facing pressure over how she is handling the scandal.
Yesterday the minister was caught on camera bragging about how she had done a “f***ing good job” tackling the crisis, meanwhile other ministers “sat on their arse and done nothing”.
Mr. Gibb recognized the lazy workers mentioned by Ms. Keegan as city hall leaders. In Times Radio, he expressed concern that even though 95% of instances responded to the questionnaire about concrete, there are still those 5% who did not respond in any way.
“We have chased those questionnaires several times.”
A further barrage of criticism fell on Ms. Keegan when her flight to Spain from August 25 to 31 coincided with RAAC crisis. The Town Hall bosses struck back after Ms. Keegan had claimed local authorities responsible for school buildings.
Local Government Association chair Shaun Davies said was refused a meeting with the Minister of Education.
