Welsh schools face maintenance backlog of £540m

Emily Price 

New figures have revealed that Welsh schools are facing a maintenance backlog worth over half a billion pounds.

The data was unearthed by Plaid Cymru’s education spokesperson Cefin Campbell through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Welsh local authorities.

17 councils responded uncovering a total maintenance bill of over £543,000,000 with almost a quarter of schools facing a backlog of “urgent” works worth over £93m.

The total repair bill is likely to be much higher as some local authorities were unable to provide school repair data.

Deteriorated

The FOI requests coincide with a NASUWT survey which showed that 48% of teachers in Wales believed that the condition of their school buildings has “deteriorated or greatly deteriorated” over the last three years.

Plaid Cymru has now called for a detailed national survey to assess the condition of school buildings in Wales.

Mr Campbell said: “Half a billion pounds. That is the bill faced by our schools and local authorities after 25 years of Labour negligence.

“The dire condition of our school estates in Wales encapsulates Labour’s record on education after 25 years. A record of neglect, of apathy and of letting our young people down.

“School buildings are a crucial part of our education system; they are buildings that should provide an environment that is safe for teachers and learners.

“A safe place to learn is the bare minimum a government should be offering our future generation, and Labour are failing at this and are letting our students down.

“It seems that Labour are determined to abandon our education sector in as many ways as possible.

“Recently we have seen them waving the white flag in the face of a funding crisis in our universities, we have seen an Estyn report highlighting the inherent problems with their recruitment strategies, and now we find out that they have been allowing our schools to fall to pieces – literally.”

Incredulous

Mr Campbell pursued the figures after the Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynne Neagle revealed that the Welsh Government does not collect data on maintenance backlogs within schools.

Plaid Cymru’s investigation revealed that in the education secretary’s constituency of Torfaen, 31 of 32 schools require urgent maintenance work totalling over £3m.

Mr Campbell said: “The fact that all bar one of the schools in the cabinet secretary’s own constituency need urgent maintenance is frankly incredulous.

“It truly represents the scale of Labour’s negligence when it comes to providing a learning environment where our learners and teachers can thrive.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We have invested record amounts in our school buildings over the last 10 years, with 159 new schools being built across Wales and a further 49 still under construction or in planning stages, together with over 40 extensions and 45 refurbishment projects .

“In addition, £286 million has been awarded to local authorities over the same period for repairs and maintenance. We recently announced £35 million in funding for school and college repairs in the next financial year.”