Labour to force vote to reveal what Rishi Sunak knew about dangers of RAAC before slashing school rebuilding programme

Tuesday, 5 September 2023 22:30

Labour will today (Wednesday) force a binding vote to release documents that show what the Prime Minister knew about the risks posed to children from dangerous Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) before slashing school rebuilding programmes in 2021. Labour will demand the publication of submissions of evidence and from the Department for Education to both Number 10 and the Treasury and all related correspondence ahead of the 2020 and 2021 Spending Reviews and...Request free trial

Labour will demand the publication of submissions of evidence and from the Department for Education to both Number 10 and the Treasury and all related correspondence ahead of the 2020 and 2021 Spending Reviews and the 2022 Spring and Autumn Statements to show what advice Rishi Sunak was given as Chancellor about the need to replace RAAC.

Analysis published by Labour showed that Rishi Sunak almost halved school rebuilding, eventually leading to the chaos of schools being shut just days before the start of term, with parents still in the dark about whether their children are safe.

The news comes after former Permanent Secretary at the Department of Education Jonathan Slater accused the Chancellor of halving the number of new schools required to replace dangerously unsafe buildings despite being told to double the number of new schools required by the Department.

Labour’s demand for the papers comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt refused a request by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to release correspondence between the Department for Education and the Treasury at Treasury Oral Questions yesterday (Tuesday).

Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:

“It’s scandalous that parents are still in the dark about the dangers posed to their children at school because of Rishi Sunak’s reckless decision to slash budgets for school rebuilding, reportedly against the advice of officials.

“The Prime Minister is directly responsible for the crisis that has struck schools this week, the chaos that families have faced at the start of term and the disruption to children’s learning.

“Today, we are giving Conservative MPs a choice: to vote with Labour and give parents the right to know about who is responsible for this mess or to vote to conceal the true scale of this crisis and the Prime Minister’s failure to keep our children safe.

Ends

Notes

The Humble Address motion will be heard after the conclusion of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. The duration of the debate will be three hours. Text of Labour’s Humble Address motion is below:

That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give direction that there will be laid before this House by 13 September 2023 the following papers –

(a) submissions from the Department for Education to HM Treasury related to the spending reviews in 2020 and 2021; and

(b) all papers, advice, and correspondence, including submissions and electronic communications, within and between the Cabinet Office (including the Office of the Prime Minister), the Department for Education and HM Treasury relating to these submissions concerned with school buildings.

The School Rebuilding Programme was announced on 29 June 2020, as “a 10-year, multiwave rebuilding programme for schools” to replace “poor-condition and ageing school buildings, with modern, energy-efficient designs”. This followed the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) which was launched by the Coalition Government in July 2011 to “deal with maintenance problems” in school buildings.
School buildings and capital funding (England),House of Commons Library, 1 September 2023, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7375/CBP-7375.pdf

According to NAO figures, the actual spend, in nominal terms, on the DfE’s school rebuilding programme in 2019-20 was £765 million. In 2020-21, after Rishi Sunak became Chancellor of the Exchequer, this spending dropped to £560 million, falling to £416 million in 2021-22 and £450 million in 2022-23. This represents a cumulative cut of £869 million to spending on the government’s school rebuilding programmes since 2019-20.
pp.30, Condition of school buildings, National Audit Office, 28 June 2023, https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/condition-of-school-buildings.pdf

The Department for Education estimated that “the cost of returning schools to satisfactory condition would double between 2015-16 and 2020-21”.
School buildings and capital funding (England), House of Commons Library, 1 September 2023, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7375/CBP-7375.pdf

NAO figures on school rebuilding programme spending:

Actual and projected spending, in nominal terms, on the Department for Education's school rebuilding programmes, 2016-17 to 2024-25 (£ million)
	actual	actual	actual	actual	projected	projected
Year	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Priority School Building Programme one (PSBP1)	70	12	23	0	1	1
Priority School Building Programme two (PSBP2)	695	548	327	175	69	27
School Rebuilding Programme (SRP)	0	0	66	275	614	1082
Total	765	560	416	450	684	1110
Difference in spend vs 2019-20	0	-205	-349	-315

Source: pp.30, Condition of school buildings, National Audit Office, 28 June 2023, https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/condition-of-school-buildings.pdf

Transcript of interview between Nick Robinson and Jonathan Slater, former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education:

JS: The top political priority in respect to school building when I was the Permanent Secretary was in opening new free schools. That's what the Conservative Party put at the heart of their 2015 manifesto. For me as an official that seemed that it should have been second to safety. Politics is about choices and that was a choice they made.

NR: And there were further choices made after you left the department in 2020. Over the budget, what did you see happening?

JS: Well, I told you that I was optimistic that with the quality of the analysis, we had some really good people detailed studies that had never be done anywhere before - I thought we'd get it over the line. The spending review was completed a year after I left the department. And I was absolutely amazed to see that the decision made by the government was to halve the school rebuilding programme, down from 100 year to 50 a year.

NR: To be clear that in the department, you were saying we need to rebuild three to 400. It became 100 here, and after you left the department it went down to 50.

JS: Yes, to be clear. We know what's needed was 3 - 400. There's only so much capacity in the construction industry. There's disruption if you close schools and rebuild them. So the actual ask in the spending review in 2021 was to double the 100 to 200. That's what we thought was going to be practical in the first instance, I thought we'd get it. But the actual decision that the chancellor took in 21 was to half the size.

NR: The Chancellor of course was at the time, was…?

JS: Rishi Sunak

NR: Now, what ministers will say is there is new evidence that things that we thought were long term crisis, we've been told differently because the evidence has changed and we're reacting accordingly.

JS: So there's no secret about the fact that these concrete system built schools have to design life for 30 to 40 years. You don't know when any individual concrete block is going to crack because it cracks from the inside. But you know, it's going to happen – and it has.

Source: Radio 4 - Listen Live - BBC Sounds, 7.15 am