Hampshire school Cranbourne College in Basingstoke among schools told to shut due to Raac concrete - full list

Ministers are facing calls for transparency over the scale of aerated concrete in schools as some classrooms have been made to shut their days before the start of term. According to the Daily Mirror, Cranbourne College in Wessex Close, Basingstoke, is one of the schools being asked to close.

Experts have warned that the crisis over reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) could extend beyond the education sector – with healthcare settings, courts and offices also potentially at risk.

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Chairwoman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Dame Meg Hillier warned Raac is just “the tip of the iceberg” of a crumbling school estate, describing the state of some public buildings was “jaw-dropping”.

Writing in The Times, the Labour MP said she had visited a hospital where heavy patients had to be treated on the ground floor because of the risk of roof failure. Opposition parties are demanding information about the scale of Raac across the public sector estate, with Labour calling for an “urgent audit”.

The Department of Education (DoE) has forced 104 schools and colleges to partially or fully shut buildings. Though not confirmed, it is estimated that around 24 schools in England have been told to close entirely because of the presence of Raac.

Schools minister Nick Gibb has admitted that more places could be asked to shut classrooms. Mr Gibb said that a collapse of a beam that had been considered safe over the summer sparked an urgent rethink on whether buildings with the aerated concrete could remain open.

He insisted schools were contacting affected families and told the BBC’s Today programme “we will publish a list”, but only once they are in a “stable place”. But the problem could be far wider, with other buildings at risk of sudden collapse if Raac is not removed, specialists said.

Dame Meg questioned “why it has been left to deteriorate for so long” while millions of pounds are being spent on temporary measures to mitigate the risk.

“In both schools and hospitals, there hasn’t been enough money going into buildings and equipment,” she told Times Radio.

She said the costs of working around the problem – by using props to support existing structures and conducting surveys on Raac-affected areas – were “eye-watering and wasteful”.

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Engineers have warned that the problem could be far wider, with hospitals, prisons, courts and offices potentially at risk due to the use of Raac up to the mid-1990s.

Labour has called for an “urgent audit” to identify the risk of the concrete across the public sector estate, while the Liberal Democrats said the public and NHS staff need “urgent clarity” over whether hospital wards and buildings could be forced to close.

Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the crisis would damage the education of children at a primary school in a deprived area of her constituency which has been forced to close its hall.

“These are some of the poorest, less ready-for-school children that we have in this country and they really need their schools to be open,” the Manchester Central MP told BBC Breakfast. Raac is thought to be present in buildings at 34 hospitals across England, and the Government has pledged seven of the worst affected will be replaced by 2030.

List of schools closed due to Raac

These are the list of schools affected, according to the Daily Mirror. The Department of Education has not published a full list. This list is compiled from media reports and information from schools:

Cranbourne College, Basingstoke

Hockley Primary School, Rochford

Mistley Norman Church of England Primary School, Manningtree

St Andrews Junior School, Hatfield Peverel

Kingsdown School, Southend-on-Sea

Stanway Fiveways Primary School, Colchester

Honywood Community School, Coggeshall

Baynards Primary School, Tiptree

Thurstable School, Tiptree

Winter Gardens Academy, Canvey Island

Woodville Primary School, South Woodham Ferrers

The Gilberd School, Colchester

The Appleton School, Benfleet

Katherines Primary Academy, Harlow

White Hall Academy, Clacton-on-Sea

Ramsey Academy, Halstead

Ravens Academy, Clacton-On-Sea

St Clere's School, Stanford-le-Hope

East Bergholt High School, Colchester

The Billericay School, Billericay

Clacton County High School, Clacton

Jerounds Primary School in Harlow

Tendring Technology College, Frinton Campus

White Hall Academy primary, Clacton

Wyburns Primary School, Rayleigh

Claydon High School, Claydon

Hadleigh High School, Hadleigh

Willowbrook Mead Primary Academy, Leicester

Parks Primary School, Leicester

Mayflower Primary School, Leicester

Buckton Fields Primary School, Northampton

Donnington Wood Infants School, Donnington

Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, Brixton

St Gregory's Catholic Science College, Brent

St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive, Eltham

St Mary Magdalene and St Stephen's CE Primary School, Westminster

Our Lady's Catholic High School, Preston

Crossflatts Primary School, Bradford

Eldwick Primary School, Bradford

Abbey Lane Primary School, Sheffield

Scalby School, Scarborough

Ferryhill School, Ferryhill

St Bede's Catholic School, Easington

Byron Sixth Form Peterlee, Easington

St Leonard’s Catholic School, Durham

St James Catholic Primary, Hebburn

St Teresa's Catholic Primary School

Carmel College and Sixth Form, Darlington

Holy Trinity Catholic Academy, Newark

Carnarvon Primary School, Bingham

Wood Green Academy, Wednesbury

Cockermouth School, Cockermouth