RAAC and academy schools – urgent answers needed to three funding questions

The extent of Reinforced Aerated Autoclave Concrete, or RAAC, in schools has sent shockwaves through the education sector and with parents as children returned to school after the long summer break.

It has left many schools facing the impossible decision of having to vacate areas that are known to contain RAAC with little or no notice and desperately searching for portable classrooms or alternative classroom spaces. Even where RAAC is not evident, its spectre hangs over future capital investment programmes.

It has long been known that RAAC was used in school construction between the 1950s and 1990s and that its safe life use extends to just 30 years. If further warning was needed, the collapse of a primary school roof in 2018 should have been sufficient. To date, 174 schools are known to have RAAC.

The Government has said that it “will spend whatever it takes to keep children safe” and that all schools where RAAC is confirmed “will be provided with funding for all mitigation works that are capital funded, such as propping and temporary accommodation”.

Initial Department for Education guidance said that costs, such as the rental of space and transportation costs, would have to be paid for by councils and multi-academy trusts. However, the Government has since said that it will cover “all reasonable requests” from RAAC-affected schools to cover revenue costs.

Questions remain over what the Government will consider ‘reasonable’.

Funding squeezed

Every year, James Cowper Kreston and Kreston Global member firms in the UK publish its Academies Benchmark Report, a detailed research-led report that looks at the financial health of academy schools in the UK.

In 2023, it pointed to a huge increase in capital spending with academy trusts accumulating a sizeable backlog in maintenance and investment. It also reported falling reserves in schools, albeit with 11% of MATs holding reserves above 20% of income. 88% of schools expect to erode those reserves in over the next three years. School leaders, the report finds, continue to worry about the uncertain funding landscape.

Schools are already facing financial pressures on school maintenance, addressing asbestos concerns and efforts to increase energy efficiency to tackle high energy costs. So where does that leave schools facing significant capital and revenue expenditure?

The answer is we simply do not know. Schools need urgent answers to the following three questions:

What funding is available to schools?

There has so far been no announcement to indicate new funding for schools to identify or remedy RAAC, despite promises to spend whatever it takes. It is suggested funding only comes from already stretched existing sources.

Will the Government cancel existing capital projects to pay for RAAC?

If so, where will this leave schools that need urgent remediation work unrelated to RAAC?  Will funds originally intended for asbestos removal or for improving energy efficiency be diverted to deal with RAAC?

What does “reasonable revenue costs” mean?

Schools have been given no clarification or guidance on what will constitute reasonable costs. That is urgently required before schools rack up significant expenditure.

School leadership teams and trustees are currently left in a difficult position. Whilst there is no straightforward answer, the starting point for any decision-making should rest on understanding the nature of any potential problem.

Schools can check the design and construction statements for their schools but given the age of some schools this information will simply not be available. They can wait for a government-appointed surveyor, or commission their own survey. That might prove costly and questions remain over whether such costs could be reclaimed

But only with the right information can a strategy to move forward be developed and agreed.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please contact our Academies team.