Cutting schools’ cash to invest in buildings risks more asbestos in classrooms, unions warn

Cutting schools’ cash to invest in buildings could increase the risk from asbestos for pupils and teachers, education unions have warned.

School buildings are “crumbling” amid funding pressures, and asbestos may become more present in classrooms because heads cannot afford repairs, the Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) has said.

Significant and urgent government investment is needed in this week’s Budget to remove asbestos from school buildings to ensure the safety of children and staff, according to the group of nine unions.

Schools have suffered a cumulative cut of £26.5bn to the education capital budget over the past decade, an analysis from the JUAC suggests.

And yet, an estimated four in five schools in England contain asbestos, according to figures from the government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Breathing in asbestos fibres can lead to mesothelioma — a cancer that typically develops decades after exposure to asbestos. Around 5,000 people are killed each year from asbestos-related diseases.

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.

“This means asbestos could become more accessible in classrooms or be accidentally disturbed.”

A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) in 2017 calculated that it would cost £6.7bn to return all schools in England to at least a satisfactory condition — and the unions warn that this figure, which does not take into account the cost of managing or removing asbestos, is likely to be even higher now.

Mr McClean added: “To continue to put the school estate under such pressure by reducing or freezing capital funding again would be irresponsible.

“We urge the chancellor to make the health of everyone in schools a priority and to provide adequate capital funding to safely tackle asbestos in his Budget tomorrow.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We have invested £23bn since 2016-17 to deliver new school places, rebuild or refurbish buildings in the worst condition and deliver thousands of condition projects across the school estate, including removing asbestos when it is the safest course of action to do so.

“We have taken significant steps in recent years to strengthen schools’ approach to managing asbestos, including publishing refreshed guidance for schools in 2017 and launching the Asbestos Management Assurance Process in March 2018 to understand how well asbestos is managed in schools.

“The assurance process found that there are no systemic failures in the management of asbestos across the state-funded school estate.”