Midlands schools impacted by RAAC crisis revealed

The government has published its full list of schools so far identified as impacted by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Twelve schools across the Midlands are part of the 147-strong list, with more schools expected to be added after being set a deadline of the end of this week to confirm RAAC is present.

The cheap, lightweight material is a ‘bubbly’ form of concrete, used in construction between the 1950s and mid-1990s. By the 1980s, RAAC had caused many buildings to crumble. It was only on August 16 that the Health and Safety Executive said that “RAAC is now life-expired. It is liable to collapse with little or no notice”.

Many schools are now having to delay the start of term, find other teaching locations or resort to remote learning.

The published list comes after Education Secretary Gillian Keegan sparked debate for her comments after an interview with ITV News on Monday, saying that “everyone else has sat on their arse” and asked why no one has said she’s “done a f****** good job”.

She then said schools should “get off their backsides” and respond to the RAAC survey in an interview with Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday.

Keegan said: “The annoying bit, and this was probably a bit of my frustration yesterday, is despite asking since March 2020, there’s 5% of schools or responsible bodies that have not responded to the survey. Now, hopefully, all this publicity will make them get off their backsides.

“But what I would like them to do is to respond because I want to be the secretary of state that knows exactly in every school where there is Raac and takes action.

“We’ve written to them quite a few times and we’ve also set up a call centre to phone them up to ask them to do it and they still haven’t. So we have written to them yesterday and given them until the end of the week.”

The list of Midlands schools affected: