More than 100 schools have been ordered to close just days before the start of the new academic year over safety concerns.
The government told 104 schools around the country, as well as more than 50 nurseries and further education colleges, that any site that was built from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, which was widely used between the 1950s and mid-1990s, “should no longer be open”.
The National Audit Office said the government had identified the presence of the potentially defective concrete in 572 of 21,600 schools in England.
The sudden closure order comes 11 months after the Cabinet Office’s government property section launched a search for the material in the wider £158bn government estate, including health buildings and police stations.
On Thursday night the Cabinet Office confirmed that 34 other public buildings had also been found to feature RAAC. Investigations are continuing but so far these include 24 hospitals sites
