Blitz Bureau
More than 1.5 million children in Englandare studying in dilapidated school buildings, a Guardian investigation has revealed. A study of government buildings, including hospitals, schools and courts has found thousands are in need of urgent repair, with conditions so bad in many that they are endangering the lives of those who visit and work in them.
One school had to be evacuated because inspectors found the floor could collapse at any moment. The Guardian investigation found that one in six schoolchildren were studying in schools that either needed major work or were in a relatively poor condition. Almost half of those were in schools that the government or regulatory body has deemed to be unsafe or ageing and in need of major refurbishment.
The report has for the first time combined data from multiple government departments like the department for education, the courts service, prison regulators, the NHS and the department for work and pensions and has prompted calls for ministers to spend hundreds of millions of pounds more to carry out immediate improvements.
The paper quoted Geoffrey CliftonBrown, the Conservative chair of the cross-party public accounts committee, as saying, “Our committee has long warned of the short-term thinking and decision-making in government that has inexorably led to the miasma of rot rising over our public realm. “Some of our nation’s hospitals are in a desperate state, with props having to be used to hold up floors – some of which cannot even bear the weight of patients needing treatment.”
He added: “Proper maintenance of public buildings cannot continue to be seen as a non-urgent matter of leaky roofs and draughty rooms. Far from an abstract issue, these are problems of the gravest concern that can cause snowballing additional costs.”
Ministers have blamed the previous government for underspending on Britain’s public buildings for years, with departments regularly having raided their capital budgets to help pay for day-to-day spending.
A government spokesperson said, “We are taking immediate action to remedy the state of disrepair found in our public estate, which has been neglected over the previous years.”
