“Carla is also right that this could have been prevented. Thirteen years of reckless Conservative cuts have left us with capital spending on schools cut by 50% in real terms between 2010 and 2022.
“Despite promises to end austerity in our schools, new capital spending pledges are a drop in the ocean. In my city, 153 of 163 schools face cuts in 2023-24 and are set collectively to lose about £7.7 million. What is worse is that ministers are keeping parents in the dark about how bad the situation is.”
Last month Ms Blake met with her constituent, the school and Baroness Barran, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education, to discuss what further support could be provided to the school to help improve safety. In its annual report, published in December, the Department for Education said: “There is a risk of collapse of one or more blocks in some schools which are at, or approaching, the end of their designed life-expectancy, and structural integrity is impaired”.