Schools crisis: no extra cash for repairs, says Treasury

Jeremy Hunt was accused yesterday of abandoning children disrupted by the concrete crisis in schools after the government admitted there would be no extra cash for the education budget to cover repairs and closures.

- Rajeev Syal, Ben Quinn, Richard Adams

As dozens of schools closed buildings for weeks and prepared to evacuate children to other sites as they were due to begin the new term, Whitehall sources said additional costs for headteachers such as transport to alternative venues and catering would not be covered by central government.

The deepening row over the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which is threatening to engulf parliament this week, comes after the chancellor said the government would "spend what it takes" to deal with the crisis.

Hunt, the chancellor, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that he would not speculate on the potential cost of fixing the problem, but said: "We will spend what it takes to make sure children can go to school safely, yes."

But hours later, Treasury sources briefed that any such funding would come from the Department for Education's existing budget for buildings - and not from additional funds. Whitehall sources said schools, academies and local authorities forced to bus their pupils to alternative sites would not be given extra cash either.

The briefings prompted Labour, union leaders and a senior Conservative to demand clarity from ministers about who would pay for the fallout from the Raac crisis.

Priti Patel, the Conservative former home secretary, who has five schools with Raac facing closures in her Essex constituency of Witham, said the government should offer money to struggling schools coping with the crisis.