A type of aerated concrete, Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, RAAC, is prone to collapse of many buildings.
104 buildings have been identified as of potential risk of collapse and of being unsafe. The UK Minister for Schools has closed 104 schools already. Nick Gibb, a junior government minister, has promised to find alternative buildings or provide tents and portacabins. He said that further investigation suggests that many more buildings; including courts, libraries, hospitals, and other public buildings may also have to close.
The current government were aware of these problems as early as 2018 but choose to ignore them. A beam in one school collapsed, fortunately avoiding any injuries to the children, even though it had shown no signs of being a hazard.
What is RAAC?
Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete can best be visualised as an Aero chocolate bar. As a chocolate snack, it may be very tasty, but having lots of air in concrete has proved to be disastrous.
The UK government has come under heavy criticism for not dealing with this problem earlier. Their continuing push for more and more austerity to bring down inflation at the expense of the living standards of the electorate is now coming back to haunt them.
And, more particularly, why was remedial building work not undertaken during the 7-week school holidays that have just ended? There would then have been no disruption to the children’s education.
Announcing this problem just a few days between the new school year starting is merely an example of the government hoping these difficulties would go away and avoid their taking any action.
The first and most important thing to avoid in concrete is air bubbles. So why did they use this kind of concrete in the first place ?
Presumably because it’s cheaper. It’s been an issue for 2 decades, and the current government turn a blind eye to it. Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour party, has today attacked the Tory government of Ricki Sunak on the issue.
I’m quite surprised Starmer has not added his weight to the comments, particularly as, in my last story, he indicated he would start being more forceful in opposing government actions and policy.