Commenting on
Environmental Sustainability
Review and
Conditions of School
Buildings, two reports
published today by the National Audit
Office, Kevin
Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union,
said:
“These reports rightly pull
no punches on the Government’s stewardship of the
school estate. Capital funding under this Government has
declined by around 37% in cash terms and 50% in real terms
between 2009-10 and 2021-22. With the school estate in such a
perilous condition, and the need for investment in retrofitting
never more compelling, the arguments for categorically and
demonstrably reversing this trend remain
potent.
“On sustainability, the National Audit
Office notes that the Department for Education is responsible
for 37% of emissions from public sector buildings but has
not yet set a target to reduce them – despite schools, colleges
and universities containing a generation of young people
eager to learn how and to act. It is unacceptable that the DfE’s
current schemes will not bring it close to achieving a 75%
reduction. Nor is it acceptable that the DfE does not understand
how the risks from flood, overheating and water scarcity apply to
the education estate. Cutting the budget of a project aimed at
introducing low-cost ways to increase resilience of the existing
estate to climate change, from £90.5 million to just £4.6
million, is incredibly shortsighted.
“The DfE must act on the almost 13,800
system-built blocks it has identified as containing asbestos
– especially as around 3,600 of these may be more susceptible to
deterioration. Sitting on its hands is not an
option.
“For those schools
containing Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), it
is clear that the DfE should have begun its efforts to
identify its locations sooner, as it is still woefully
behind in gathering the information required in order
to fully manage its potential
risks.
“If we are to prevent something
catastrophic happening, such as a building collapse, and to
finally get to grips with the hidden killer asbestos in our
schools, action must be taken - and significant funding put in
place - to address the situation in a meaningful way. The
era of hoping such problems will go away of their own accord is
over.”
