Government to search for dangerous concrete across its entire estate

The Office of Government Property is leading the huge effort to track down the existence of dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in state-owned buildings.

The move, which emerged in a report to the Local Government Association's (LGA) Councillors’ Forum, marks an escalation of the crackdown on the unsafe material.

RAAC has been in the spotlight since the sudden collapse of a school roof in Kent in 2018. A report by watchdog the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) the following year warned that the material was inherently ‘much weaker’ than traditional concrete and had a ‘useful life’ of around three decades.

The aerated lightweight cementitious material is made without coarse aggregate and behaves significantly differently to ‘traditional’ reinforced concrete. It fell out of favour in the 1980s (see Loughborough University's expert explainer here). The LGA warned councils last year that it was now ‘life expired and liable to collapse’.

Identification of RAAC in the public estate has so far been piecemeal. Prisons minister Damian Hinds last month warned that it may be present in six court buildings, while it has emerged that three Scottish police buildings contain the material.

The NHS has also uncovered five hospitals at risk of collapse from RAAC problems. It recently announced that a significant chunk of its latest £20 billion funding package would be going towards fixing crumbling facilities built with the material.

The Department for Health admitted that RAAC posed a significant risk to patients and staff if buildings using it were not rebuilt by 2030. The Ministry of Defence also issued a safety alert in 2019.

The report to the LGA Councillors’ Forum, from its safer & stronger communities board chair Nesil Caliskan, said: ‘Central government is looking to expand RAAC identification and remediation into the wider public estate following its initial focus on local-authority-maintained schools.

‘The Office of Government Property will be convening a working group in which there will be a designated representative from each government department who is responsible for the identification and remediation of RAAC in buildings owned by that department. This group will also be attended by key stakeholders including the LGA.’

A government spokesperson said: ‘Departments regularly review the condition of buildings they manage, including assessing safety.

‘Departments are prioritising maintenance and improvement works at those sites which have been identified as containing RAAC.’