Gillian Keegan was left squirming this morning as she was challenged on reports £32 million is being spent on refurbishing her department.
Appearing on Sky News, the education secretary admitted she “didn’t know” the amount being spent on renovations following reports that thousands more schools could be at risk from unsafe concrete.
It follows the partial and full closure of more than 100 schools over the safety of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) just days before pupils return from the summer holidays.
A row has broken out over who should foot the bill for essential repairs, with the Treasury announcing that funding would come from the Department for Education’s existing budget for buildings.
Rishi Sunak was accused of exacerbating the school concrete scandal earlier this week by refusing to fully fund a programme to rebuild England’s crumbling education facilities.
Jonathan Slater, former permanent secretary at the Department for Education from May 2016 to August 2020, claimed the Treasury had failed to fully fund school rebuilding schemes just days after Michael Gove was criticised for scrapping similar programmes in 2010.
Asked by host Kay Burley whether rumours of the £32 million makeover of her own department were true, Keegan said: “I don’t know actually, I haven’t done it. Which offices?
“I know that when I was last in the department, I was on a different floor and I know they were refurbishing some of them. I wasn’t involved in that.
“I guess there’s some maintenance requirements that they had on there. I wasn’t part of that decision to be honest, but I’ll check when I get back.”
According to an investigation by The Sun, the renovations began with Keegan’s predecessor in 2022, but the plans were still signed off by the current education secretary in April.
The work includes gutting out the current interior to create a headquarters with more modern and efficient office space across six fully-renovated floors.
Pressed by the presenter on whether it was wise for such a large sum of money to be spent on office renovation, Keegan added: “I don’t know what the condition of the offices – we could have been dealing with other issues within the offices – but I will look at it when I get back.”
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