On Wednesday, 6th September Simon Baynes MP, the Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, spoke in the Opposition Day debate on RAAC concrete in schools.
During the debate, Mr Baynes outlined that the UK government have taken the right steps to address this issue in schools across England. He stated that they have pledged to spend whatever it takes to address this issue, putting in steps to ensure affected schools can remain open where possible and promptly issuing guidance on how to address RAAC to relevant authorities.
He also addressed the fact that, despite the Opposition seeking to make capital out of this issue, the Welsh Labour government "took their eye off the ball" on this issue, relying on councils to do the work that the UK Conservative government is leading on in England. He specifically made reference to the Welsh government only ordering surveys in May 2023, compared to the UK government which started engaging with schools in March 2022.
Further addressing this topic, Mr Baynes highlighted that education has been devolved in Wales for 26 years, and during this time Welsh Labour has chosen to prioritise their vanity projects such as the introduction of 20mph speed limits whilst cutting the education budget in Wales in real terms this year.
