Islington Town Hall

SCHOOL buildings in Islington are being investigated as part the national concrete crisis – but the government has not warned education chiefs in the borough of the need for any closures.

Commenting on the current probe into the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in school buildings, an Islington Council spokesman said: “At this time, the government has not notified us of any schools that need to be closed or partially closed.”

But he added the Town Hall is “closely monitoring our own education estate” for problems with RAAC.

The Department for Education (DfE) announced on Wednesday that 147 schools across the country needed to close immediately – leaving many children unable to start school this week after the summer holiday.

A department spokesman added: “The issues with RAAC in buildings have been known about nationally for some time and we have been supporting and working closely with all schools and nursery schools in the borough to identify whether RAAC may be present in any of their buildings.”

The number of schools needed to close is expected to rise as more checks are made up and down the country.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak defended his government over the crisis in schools and said he had acted  “decisively” on the unsafe concrete.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer likened the government to “cowboy builders” and read out the names of schools that were earmarked for improvement works in 2010 under the last Labour government, but were now being rated as unsafe due to the presence of the limited lifespan RAAC.