More than 1,000 further schools could be impacted by crumbling concrete

The Prime Minister has acknowledged on Monday that around 1,100 more schools could be impacted by crumbling concrete.

Rishi Sunak has been accused of failing to fund a programme to replace older classrooms in schools across England.

Sunak insists that out around 22,000 schools across England 95% of them are not affected by the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

More than a hundred schools have been told that for safety reasons they cannot fully open at the start of the autumn term.

The Prime Minister said, “New information came to light relatively recently and it’s important that once it had, that the Government acted on it as swiftly as possible.

“Of course I know the timing is frustrating, but I want to give people a sense of the scale of what we are grappling with here: there are around 22,000 schools in England and the important thing to know is that we expect that 95% of those schools won’t be impacted by this.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said, “I think the Prime Minister was providing reassurance to parents, pupils and schools that the vast majority – we believe more than 95% won’t be affected.”

Sunak said that the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has set out that “we expect the numbers to be in the hundreds, not thousands.”

He added, “while we are still waiting on schools to return their surveys and confirm their specific situations we can’t be more definitive.”