![Workers at Hornsey School for Girls, North London](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/09/06/TELEMMGLPICT000348088914_16940149071620_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Michael Gove scrapped ‘wasteful’ funding scheme for crumbly concrete school repairs
Labour says at least 19 schools confirmed to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete had building projects cancelled in 2010
![Workers at Hornsey School for Girls, North London](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/09/06/TELEMMGLPICT000348088914_16940149071620_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Nineteen schools due to have crumbly concrete repaired had funding scrapped in 2010, analysis has found.
The schools were included in the Building Schools for the Future programme, a £55 million project launched by Labour to improve every secondary school in England.
Half of the schools were due to be rebuilt, while the remainder were earmarked for refurbishment.
However, the scheme was axed by Michael Gove, then education secretary, who said it was too bureaucratic and wasteful.
He said that the former Labour government behind the scheme had been relying on “unrealistic” end-of-year underspending to fund projects, creating a “black hole”, which he said the new coalition government would not allow to continue.
Labour said on Wednesday that at least 19 schools confirmed to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) had building projects cancelled in 2010.
They included six schools in Essex and five in London.
Disruption because of risk
The Department for Education has published a full list of around 150 state schools in England known to have Raac in their buildings.
It showed that tens of thousands of pupils were facing major disruption because of the risky concrete, including remote learning or a delayed start to the new school year.
Raac is a building material used in the latter half of the 20th century, but is now assessed to be at risk of collapse.
DfE officials began calling more than 100 schools to alert them that they needed to fully or partially close last week, only days before the start of the new school term.
A government spokesman said the action was taken after part of a school building containing Raac which had been rated as “non-critical”, collapsed unexpectedly during the summer holidays.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “Conservative ministers, including the current Schools Minister [Nick Gibb], did away with Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme which would have rebuilt every secondary school in this country.”
She added: “The chickens have come home to roost. It is time for the Prime Minister and this shambolic Conservative government to take responsibility for the mess they have made and get a grip of this crisis.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons on Wednesday he would “make no apology for acting decisively in the face of new information” in relation to schools. He said the Government was doing “everything it can to fix this quickly and minimise the disruption to children’s education”.