Budget 2020: £100m less to repair crumbling schools

Chancellor slashes Department for Education’s capital budget despite unions’ warning over asbestos risk
11th March 2020, 6:25pm

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Budget 2020: £100m less to repair crumbling schools

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/budget-2020-ps100m-less-repair-crumbling-schools
School Buildings Budget Cut

Today’s Budget has left schools with less money to spend on repairing school buildings, Tes can reveal.

This comes despite unions warning of the asbestos risk to teachers and pupils and chancellor Rishi Sunak trumpeting his plan to “get Britain building”, saying that government “capital budgets in 2024-25 alone will reach over £110 billion”.

But Treasury documents in fact reveal a cut in education, with £4.5 billion made available for the Department for Education’s (DfE) capital budget next year, compared with £4.6 billion this year.

As Mr Sunak spoke in Parliament, the NEU teaching union revealed that 3,731 schools needed immediate repair and a further 9,872 needed work within two years at the latest.


Related: Revealed: More than 50 asbestos exposure incidents in academies

News: ‘Name and shame schools that fail to give asbestos information’

Funding: Lack of government asbestos funding branded ‘appalling’


The union’s joint general secretary Mary Bousted said: “Spending on school buildings has fallen dramatically since 2010; it is now 42 per cent lower than under the last government. We greatly regret the government’s neglect.”

Although no direct mention was made by the chancellor on capital spending on schools, the associated Budget document published by the Treasury reveals £640 billion will be available over the next five years for gross capital investment on public resources, including roads, railways, schools and hospitals.

When asked by Tes how much of this would be available for schools, the Treasury said the figure would not be available until after the Comprehensive Spending Review later this year.

However, the Budget document reveals that the allocation for 2020-21 has already been decided and that it will be £4.5 billion, compared with £4.6 billion this year.

Yesterday, unions who make up the Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) said that any attempt by the chancellor to reduce or freeze capital funding for schools would be “irresponsible”.

John McClean, chair of JUAC, said: “Any real-terms decrease in capital funding for schools in this Budget will raise the risk from asbestos for children and staff.

“School budgets are already at breaking point after more than a decade’s funding freeze, and many school buildings are literally crumbling as repairs become unaffordable.”

Around four-fifths of school buildings in England contain asbestos, according to the Department for Health’s own estimate.

Treasury sources pointed out that the DfE “resource budget” for schools has gone up from £44.4 billion this year to £47.6 billion next year. 

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