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Lord Agnew says he had ‘most likely 10 conferences’ to attempt to get a ‘long-term envelope’ confirmed
Lord Agnew says he had ‘most likely 10 conferences’ to attempt to get a ‘long-term envelope’ confirmed
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The Treasury rejected makes an attempt to safe funding for the complete 10 years of the present faculty rebuilding programme amid concern about RAAC, a former minister has claimed.
Lord Agnew, who as academies minister between 2017 and 2020 was answerable for faculty capital spending, instructed GB Information he had “most likely 10 conferences with the Treasury” to attempt to “get them to offer me a long-term envelope” however “they wouldn’t do it”.
The claims will put additional stress on the federal government amid criticism of inaction over the risks of strengthened autoclaved aerated concrete within the faculty property, which has now resulted within the partial closure of a minimum of 147 colleges.
The prime minister presided over the announcement of the rebuilding programme in 2020, and in response to Slater made the choice to solely rebuild round 50 colleges a 12 months.
Colleges Week revealed final week how dozens of colleges with RAAC had both had deliberate rebuilds scrapped or bids for work rejected over the previous 10 years.
In 2020, then prime minister Boris Johnson introduced plans for a brand new 10-year faculty rebuilding programme. Beneath the scheme, 500 colleges are as a consequence of be absolutely or partially re-built over the approaching decade.
Preliminary funding of £1 billion for the primary tranche of colleges was introduced, however future funding has not been confirmed by the federal government.
‘They wouldn’t do it’
Agnew, who subsequently served as a Treasury minister earlier than resigning final 12 months over the federal government’s dealing with of Covid enterprise mortgage fraud, mentioned he instructed the Treasury to “give me a ten 12 months envelope of cash”.
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“[It] doesn’t should be any extra, however then I can exit to the constructing business and say ‘here’s a 10 12 months programme to be able to device up for coping with these refurbishments’. They wouldn’t do it.
“They mentioned it has to take a seat throughout the spending assessment, however I mentioned to them ‘nicely are we not going to have any colleges on the finish of the spending assessment?’ I mentioned ‘what’s going to occur on the finish of the 12 months or the three-year spending assessment?’ And naturally they don’t have any reply.”
Colleges Week revealed final week that ten colleges with RAAC had functions to the brand new rebuilding programme rejected.
Agnew mentioned RAAC had been “on the agenda for years” and questioned why authorities waited till the final week of the varsity holidays to take motion.
“They might have performed it originally of the vacations couldn’t they?”
The Treasury was approached for remark.
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