Government has adopted sticking-plaster approach to school building safety, says NAO – UK politics live

Government has adopted ‘sticking-plaster approach’ to school building safety, says Gareth Davies

Good morning. As you would expect, Labour and the other opposition parties have portrayed the Raac (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) school building safety crisis as evidence of how the Conservatives’ failure to invest properly in infrastructure is now having potentially disastrous consequences. But you might not expect the National Audit Office to come out and say more or less exactly the same thing.

The NAO is highly respected, and that is partly because it does not do partisan politics, and it does not go in for sensationalism or over-statement. Its reports, although frequently newsworthy, are burdened with so much boring officialese that it can be hard for a reader to work out what the story actually is. Most people don’t know who the head of the NAO even is, because he does not chase headlines.

But today Gareth Davies, the NAO chief, is on the front page of the Times, where he has written an article in effect accusing the government of adopting a “sticking-plaster approach” to school building safety. He says:

Getting good value for public spending means giving sufficient priority to unflashy but essential tasks such as efficiently maintaining public buildings and replacing obsolete technology, as well as to more eye-catching new projects.

Two recent National Audit Office (NAO) reports demonstrate the problems caused by underinvestment in the physical estate for two essential public services: education and health. In June we reported on the condition of school buildings, concluding: “Following years of underinvestment, the estate’s overall condition is declining and about 700,000 pupils are learning in schools that the responsible body or Department for Education (DfE) believes needs major rebuilding or refurbishment. Most seriously, the DfE recognises significant safety concerns across the estate and has escalated these concerns to the government risk register.” This week pupils, parents and teachers are experiencing the disruptive impact of addressing those safety concerns with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) ….

The underlying challenge is that adequately funding responsible capital programmes for our public services leaves less for higher profile projects. Failure to bite this bullet leads to poor value, with more money required for emergency measures or a sticking-plaster approach.

Tuesday's TIMES: 'Tories 'have put sticking plaster on risky concrete''#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/hkP4xtOiug

— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) September 4, 2023

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By chance or intentionally (probably by chance), Davies is using Labour terminology. Keir Starmer has often accused the government of “sticking-plaster politics”, claiming it is not addressing the long-term causes of problems.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, was doing an interview round this morning. Asked about Davies’s article, he said he did not accept his argument that the government was neglecting school buildings. Gibb said:

We take any official report from the National Audit Office extremely seriously, but I don’t agree with [Davies’s] comments in his article. We’re spending £1.8bn a year on maintenance and improvements to [schools].

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of his new shadow cabinet. Later he is expected to announces further frontbench changes affecting shadow ministers not in the shadow cabinet.

Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.45pm: MPs begin a debate on the remaining stages of the energy bill.

1pm: Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, is due to be interviewed on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show.

2.20pm: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about his programme for government for 2023-24.

If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

The byelection in Mid Bedfordshire caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries will take place on Thursday 19 October, Central Bedfordshire, the council organising it, has announced.

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Dorries had a majority of 24,664 in 2019 and, if the Tories were to lose, it would be the biggest byelection defeat in terms of number of voters (rather than vote share) in history. Pippa Crerar wrote a preview of the contest here.

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Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has announced that the autumn statement will take place on Wednesday 22 November. This may well be the second last “fiscal event” (to use the Treasury term for a mega-spending or tax announcement) before the general election. There will also be a budget in the spring. With the general election expected in October or November next year, Hunt may never get round to an 2024 autumn statement.

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The Chancellor @Jeremy_Hunt has commissioned the @OBR_UK to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast to be presented to @UKParliament alongside his Autumn Statement on 22nd November 2023. pic.twitter.com/qiGOeFvnBq

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 5, 2023

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In making his announcement, Hunt also stresses that the autumn statement will be accompanied by a report from the Office for Budget Responsibility. This is routine, and something that normally never needs highlighting. But Hunt may be keen to point out that he will not be following the example of his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, who delivered an autumn statement last year (the so-called mini-budget) without letting the OBR do an assessment. That was one of several reasons why it blew up, ending Liz Truss’s premiership.

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Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told the Today programme this morning that Labour would support the government if it introduces a “Martha’s rule” in England to make it easier for patients and their families who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff to get a second medical opinion. Jamie Grierson has the story here.

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In his interview, Streeting also said that Labour would consider whether encouraging more flexible working in the NHS might allow hospitals to provide better cover at weekends.

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Asked if he was concerned about the number of senior staff available at weekends, Streeting said he was worried about “the Monday to Friday culture that sees patients potentially at greater risk over the weekends”. He went on:

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\n

The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times, the highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS, but I also talk to NHS staff who increasingly want more flexible working.

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And I wonder if there’s the opportunity to have the best of both worlds here, which is seven-day care and consistent care right throughout the week for patients, at the same time as offering NHS staff greater flexibility as they juggle their own family lives.

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Those are some of the reform-driven conversations that I’m having right across the NHS workforce at the moment.

\n

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Streeting said Labour would say more on this topic before the general election.

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EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1693911638000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.00 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1693911638000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.00 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.00″,”title”:”Labour’s Wes Streeting suggests more flexible working in NHS might allow hospitals to improve weekend cover”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 5 Sep 2023 08.02 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 5 Sep 2023 04.32 EDT”},{“id”:”64f6fc3a8f086d013616b070″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The byelection for Rutherglen and Hamilton West triggered by the recall petition against Margaret Ferrier will take place on 5 October, the earliest date available after Westminster returned from recess.

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The date was confirmed this morning by Cleland Sneddon, the returning officer for South Lanarkshire council, after the Scottish National party moved the writ when Westminster resumed on Monday afternoon.

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The byelection was called after nearly 12,000 voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West signed a recall petition, the first in a Scottish constituency, after Ferrier was suspended from the Commons for 30 days after travelling to London despite suspecting she had Covid in 2021.

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It will be a significant electoral test for Humza Yousaf, the beleaguered leader of the Scottish National party, with Labour widely expected to win back the seat. Labour’s annual party conference begins the weekend after the byelection, and a surprise SNP victory would get it off to gloomy start.

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Boosted by repeated visits from senior party figures including Keir Starmer and officials from party headquarters in London, Labour has been campaigning hard in Rutherglen since Ferrier’s suspension was recommended in March.

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The seat has swung between the SNP and Labour over the last three general elections. Ferrier first took the seat from Labour in 2015, when the SNP nearly swept the board, winning 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats. Labour narrowly won it back in 2017, with a 265-vote majority, before Ferrier regained it in 2019.

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The seat will disappear in its current form at the next general election, to be renamed Rutherglen, with a different boundary.

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Here are more lines from what Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said on his media interview round this morning.

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Gibb claimed the government had been “world leading” in identifying schools with a problem caused by Raac (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete). He said:

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\n

We are world-leading in terms of identifying where Raac is in our school estate.

\n

We’re talking about a small number of schools out of 22,500 schools, but we have conducted surveys since March last year, so we know where Raac is, and we’re sending in surveyors to identify Raac.

\n

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He said he expected the problem in schools which do have Raac in buildings to be resolved well before Christmas. Asked if it would be sorted out by then, he told LBC:

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\n

I suspect that will be all sorted out far sooner than Christmas.

\n

We know that the 52 schools that we’ve already sent in … alternative accommodation has been found, mitigation, propping, whatever it is, has all happened in those 52 schools. I expect the same thing to happen in the remaining 104 schools.

\n

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He said the list of schools in England affected by Raac problems would be published before Friday. He said he thought all schools that would be on the list had already notified parents.

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He said that 5% of bodies responsible for schools in England have still not responded to a questionnaire sent out by the Department for Education to allow it to assess the Raac risk. Speaking to Times Radio, he claimed that frustration with the bodies that have not responded partly explained Gillian Keegan’s outburst yesterday.

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He said that he expected more cases of Raac in schools to be identified – although he said only 1% of surveys led to Raac being found.

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He defended Rishi Sunak’s decision as chancellor to refuse the DfE’s request for funding for 200 schools to be rebuilt per year. He told Sky News:

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\n

We put in a bid for 200, but what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme with 50 a year, consistent with what we’d been doing since we came into office.

\n

Of course we put in a bid for 200, but of course the Treasury then has to compare that with all the other priorities from right across Whitehall, from the health service, defence, and so on.

\n

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In his opening address to his new shadow cabinet this moring, Keir Starmer said the Raac school building crisis was an example of what he meant when he accused the government of sticking-plaster politics. Using a phrase also used by the head of the National Audit Office today (see 9.32am), Starmer said:

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Children are not at school today because of the action the government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable.

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It is a metaphor, frankly, for their sticking- plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals – always sticking plasters.

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Ministers still do not know how much the concrete crisis will cost to repair, Nick Gibb, the schools minister, admitted in interviews this morning. Ben Quinn has the story.

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Sky News has just broadcast footage of Keir Starmer addressing the shadow cabinet after his reshuffle yesterday. He told his colleagues that they had been chosen to sit round the table for four reasons.

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You are around his table because of four things: your talent, your commitment, your hunger – really, really important – and because I wanted a team that wakes up every morning determined to rise to the challenges that our country faces and determined to improve our country for the better.

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He also said the team needed to provide an answer to the question: ‘Why Labour?’

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This will be the last conference before we go to the country so it’s very important that we are able to show that we are ready as a party, show the changes that we have talked about, that we have the answers that the country so desperately needs, and we can answer the question: ‘Why Labour?’ and put forward our positive case to the country.

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Getting good value for public spending means giving sufficient priority to unflashy but essential tasks such as efficiently maintaining public buildings and replacing obsolete technology, as well as to more eye-catching new projects.

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Two recent National Audit Office (NAO) reports demonstrate the problems caused by underinvestment in the physical estate for two essential public services: education and health. In June we reported on the condition of school buildings, concluding: “Following years of underinvestment, the estate’s overall condition is declining and about 700,000 pupils are learning in schools that the responsible body or Department for Education (DfE) believes needs major rebuilding or refurbishment. Most seriously, the DfE recognises significant safety concerns across the estate and has escalated these concerns to the government risk register.” This week pupils, parents and teachers are experiencing the disruptive impact of addressing those safety concerns with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) ….

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The underlying challenge is that adequately funding responsible capital programmes for our public services leaves less for higher profile projects. Failure to bite this bullet leads to poor value, with more money required for emergency measures or a sticking-plaster approach.

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Tuesday's TIMES: 'Tories 'have put sticking plaster on risky concrete''#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/hkP4xtOiug

— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) September 4, 2023

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We take any official report from the National Audit Office extremely seriously, but I don’t agree with [Davies’s] comments in his article. We’re spending £1.8bn a year on maintenance and improvements to [schools].

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I will post more from his interviews shortly.

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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9.15am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of his new shadow cabinet. Later he is expected to announces further frontbench changes affecting shadow ministers not in the shadow cabinet.

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Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

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11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

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After 12.45pm: MPs begin a debate on the remaining stages of the energy bill.

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1pm: Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, is due to be interviewed on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show.

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2.20pm: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about his programme for government for 2023-24.

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Key events

Rishi Sunak told cabinet that it was right to “prioritise safety” by closing schools affected by the Raac concrete crisis, the prime minister’s spokesperson told journalists.

At this morning’s lobby briefing, the spokesperson said:

The prime minister provided a short update on the government’s approach to Raac in school settings.

He said it was right to prioritise safety and take a proactive approach of doing everything possible to minimise disruption in the small portion of schools which are affected.

He said parents should be reassured that the vast majority of schools are not impacted by Raac and that mitigations either are or are being put in place for those already identified, meaning face-to face-education was either uninterrupted or the impacts have been kept to the bare minimum.

The spokesperson also said Sunak chaired a ministerial meeting yesterday on the extent of Raac in public buildings generally, although the minister leading on this issue is Jeremy Quin from the Cabinet Office, the spokesperson said.

As Kiran Stacey and Helena Horton reported in an overnight story, the government is announcing changes to planning rules that will get rid of the de facto ban on new onshore wind turbines being installed in England. (Theoretically is not a total ban, but in practice it amounts to one, because the rules introduced by David Cameron mean a windfarm can be blocked on the basis of an objection from just one resident.)

The move is intended to avert a government defeat when MPs debate the energy bill this afternoon. Ministers are at risk of losing because more than 20 Conservatives are backing an amendment tabled by Sir Alok Sharma, the former Cop26 president, getting rid of the ban.

The government has not yet published its compromise proposal, but ITV’s Anushka Asthana says she thinks it will be enough to see off the rebellion.

Sounds to me like the govt has done just about enough to quell the rebellion on onshore wind today. The planning restriction that allows just one person to object and stop a development is going (that made it effective ban on onshore wind). But still requires council consent

— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) September 5, 2023

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Sounds to me like the govt has done just about enough to quell the rebellion on onshore wind today. The planning restriction that allows just one person to object and stop a development is going (that made it effective ban on onshore wind). But still requires council consent

— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) September 5, 2023

Mid Bedfordshire byelection to take place on 19 October

The byelection in Mid Bedfordshire caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries will take place on Thursday 19 October, Central Bedfordshire, the council organising it, has announced.

Hunt says autumn statement to take place on Wednesday 22 November

The Chancellor @Jeremy_Hunt has commissioned the @OBR_UK to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast to be presented to @UKParliament alongside his Autumn Statement on 22nd November 2023. pic.twitter.com/qiGOeFvnBq

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 5, 2023

Birmingham city council, the largest local authority in the country, has in effect declared itself bankrupt after issuing a section 114 notice signalling it cannot balance its budget without help, Jessica Murray reports.

Greg Hands, the Conservative party chair, claims that this shows the Labour party can’t manage public money properly – even though Conservative-run councils, like Northamptonshire and Thurrock, have also had similar problems.

My regular reminder that when Labour run something, they run it badly.

And once again, there is “no money left” at Britain’s largest Council.

Birmingham City Council 'effectively bankrupt' – BBC News https://t.co/C8yKAk6hDs

— Greg Hands (@GregHands) September 5, 2023

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My regular reminder that when Labour run something, they run it badly.

And once again, there is “no money left” at Britain’s largest Council.

Birmingham City Council ‘effectively bankrupt’ – BBC News https://t.co/C8yKAk6hDs

— Greg Hands (@GregHands) September 5, 2023

Labour’s Wes Streeting suggests more flexible working in NHS might allow hospitals to improve weekend cover

In his interview, Streeting also said that Labour would consider whether encouraging more flexible working in the NHS might allow hospitals to provide better cover at weekends.

The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times, the highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS, but I also talk to NHS staff who increasingly want more flexible working.

And I wonder if there’s the opportunity to have the best of both worlds here, which is seven-day care and consistent care right throughout the week for patients, at the same time as offering NHS staff greater flexibility as they juggle their own family lives.

Those are some of the reform-driven conversations that I’m having right across the NHS workforce at the moment.

Streeting said Labour would say more on this topic before the general election.

Wes Streeting at shadow cabinet today. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, was smiling as she left No 10 after cabinet this morning. Perhaps she has been reading the latest ConservativeHome survey of Tory members, which asks them to rate all members of cabinet. Ben Wallace used to regularly come top when he was defence secretary, but he is out of office now, and Badenoch is the clear leader.

Rishi Sunak is near the bottom – with his ratings down significantly compared with last month.

Survey of Tory members about performance of cabinet ministers. Photograph: ConservativeHome

Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride leaving No 10 after cabinet this morning. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

After 12.30pm there will be one urgent question in the Commons, followed by two statements. Here they are, with rough timings.

12.30pm: A levelling up minister will respond to an urgent question about relaxing the nutrient neutrality rules.

Around 1.15pm: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, will give a statement on plans to change the work capability assessment rules for people on sickness benefits.

Around 2.15pm: Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, will give an update on illegal immigration.

That means the debate on the remaining stages of the energy bill will not start until around 3.15pm.

According to a report in East Anglia Bylines, a citizen journalism website, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, privately told someone earlier this year that if she could just “keep a lid” on the Raac problem until the election, it would then be Labour’s problem. The report says:

A reliable source has informed us that in early February, two months after the risk level was raised to high, education secretary Gillian Keegan remarked, “We just need to keep the lid on this for two years and then it’s someone else’s problem.“

This, according to the Surveyors in Education, was when schools were given an ‘urgent deadline’ to tell the government if ‘they have potentially dangerous RAAC on their estate.’

This does sound like the sort of thing a politician in a government party 20 points behind in the opinion polls might say – but more as a joke than as a reference to a “cover-up” (to use the description East Anglia Bylines deploys in a sub-heading).

However, the Department for Education says Keegan did not make this comment. A spokesperson said they did not know the source of the claim and that, having checked, they have established it is not accurate. “She has not made these comments,” he said.

Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection to take place on 5 October, just before Labour conference

Severin Carrell

The seat will disappear in its current form at the next general election, to be renamed Rutherglen, with a different boundary.

UK government has been ‘world leading’ in identifying schools with Raac problems, says minister

Here are more lines from what Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said on his media interview round this morning.

We are world-leading in terms of identifying where Raac is in our school estate.

We’re talking about a small number of schools out of 22,500 schools, but we have conducted surveys since March last year, so we know where Raac is, and we’re sending in surveyors to identify Raac.

I suspect that will be all sorted out far sooner than Christmas.

We know that the 52 schools that we’ve already sent in … alternative accommodation has been found, mitigation, propping, whatever it is, has all happened in those 52 schools. I expect the same thing to happen in the remaining 104 schools.

He said that 5% of bodies responsible for schools in England have still not responded to a questionnaire sent out by the Department for Education to allow it to assess the Raac risk. Speaking to Times Radio, he claimed that frustration with the bodies that have not responded partly explained Gillian Keegan’s outburst yesterday.

We put in a bid for 200, but what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme with 50 a year, consistent with what we’d been doing since we came into office.

Of course we put in a bid for 200, but of course the Treasury then has to compare that with all the other priorities from right across Whitehall, from the health service, defence, and so on.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

Starmer says it is ‘unforgivable’ children not in school because of Raac school building crisis

Children are not at school today because of the action the government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable.

It is a metaphor, frankly, for their sticking- plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals – always sticking plasters.

Keir Starmer addressing the shadow cabinet this morning. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, arriving in Downing Street for cabinet this morning. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Cost of fixing UK school concrete crisis still not known, minister says

Ministers still do not know how much the concrete crisis will cost to repair, Nick Gibb, the schools minister, admitted in interviews this morning. Ben Quinn has the story.

Keir Starmer tells his new shadow cabinet they need to provide answer to question: ‘Why Labour?’

You are around his table because of four things: your talent, your commitment, your hunger – really, really important – and because I wanted a team that wakes up every morning determined to rise to the challenges that our country faces and determined to improve our country for the better.

He also said the team needed to provide an answer to the question: ‘Why Labour?’

This will be the last conference before we go to the country so it’s very important that we are able to show that we are ready as a party, show the changes that we have talked about, that we have the answers that the country so desperately needs, and we can answer the question: ‘Why Labour?’ and put forward our positive case to the country.

Keir Starmer with some of his shadow cabinet ministers arriving for their first meeting at Westminster this morning after yesterday’s reshuffle. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Keir Starmer addressing his shadow cabinet this morning. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Government has adopted ‘sticking-plaster approach’ to school building safety, says Gareth Davies

Getting good value for public spending means giving sufficient priority to unflashy but essential tasks such as efficiently maintaining public buildings and replacing obsolete technology, as well as to more eye-catching new projects.

Two recent National Audit Office (NAO) reports demonstrate the problems caused by underinvestment in the physical estate for two essential public services: education and health. In June we reported on the condition of school buildings, concluding: “Following years of underinvestment, the estate’s overall condition is declining and about 700,000 pupils are learning in schools that the responsible body or Department for Education (DfE) believes needs major rebuilding or refurbishment. Most seriously, the DfE recognises significant safety concerns across the estate and has escalated these concerns to the government risk register.” This week pupils, parents and teachers are experiencing the disruptive impact of addressing those safety concerns with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) ….

The underlying challenge is that adequately funding responsible capital programmes for our public services leaves less for higher profile projects. Failure to bite this bullet leads to poor value, with more money required for emergency measures or a sticking-plaster approach.

Tuesday's TIMES: 'Tories 'have put sticking plaster on risky concrete''#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/hkP4xtOiug

— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) September 4, 2023

We take any official report from the National Audit Office extremely seriously, but I don’t agree with [Davies’s] comments in his article. We’re spending £1.8bn a year on maintenance and improvements to [schools].

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of his new shadow cabinet. Later he is expected to announces further frontbench changes affecting shadow ministers not in the shadow cabinet.

Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.45pm: MPs begin a debate on the remaining stages of the energy bill.

1pm: Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, is due to be interviewed on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show.

2.20pm: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about his programme for government for 2023-24.