That simply wasnt made to last. Raac was a postwar solution, now causing a headache for 21st century britain. More than 100 schools in britain have been told they need to close. Labour has announced it will force the government to reveal a complete list of affected schools, and now calls for transparency on the scale of the problem and for fast solutions. Its been known for a while and what we have also known for a while is there is a squeeze on school funding, and my committee has highlighted that repeatedly, and my committee has highlighted that and when you dont invest in maintenance and improvements in schools you get these problems arising but with raac its a systemic failure of the actual material used to build them. Hospital buildings and Court Buildings among those impacted and internal documents obtained by The Sunday Times suggest hospitals could be at risk of catastrophic collapse. The concerns about this have been swirling around for so long. Trusts have been trying to cope
Primary school in brixton. And Katherines Primary Academy in essex. Just three of the more than 150 schools that wont be fully reopening as planned this week thanks to the presence of this, raac. A lightweight concrete used in the 50s, 60s and 70s but now often in a state of serious disrepair. Its a problem thats been known about for years. Five years ago, a Primary School building in kent collapsed, leading to wider concerns. Good morning, sir. So the questions of many parents are now asking of government why act only now, just days before the start of The New School year in england . We went through this exhaustive survey of 22,000 schools after the initial incident in 2018. Then, in the summer months, new information came to light that suggested that some of the buildings that had previously been classified as safe might not be. And so the Education Secretary acted immediately on that. The chancellor said the government would spend whatever it takes to keep children safe at school,
So hopefully now when we reach the second and third lines of defence that the russians have established, those will be easier to essentially overcome. And perhaps hopefully this is the spot, this is the place where we can actually put all the modern nato technology, the tanks that weve been getting and the training that weve been receiving, put all of that to use to our advantage. And just really, really briefly, the hope from your side that ukraines military has managed to break through these defences, how does that sit in the war across the country . Is this a key moment, would you say . Hopefully its the key moment. Again, well see what happens. Its hard to predict any at any point, including at this point. But you know what the objectives are. We have a Common Objective of liberating ukraine, notjust for ukraine, but for the whole western developed democratic world, because this is a standoff between democracies and authoritarian systems, and its really key for everybody to chip in
The dismissal of Oleksii Reznikov signals a strategy shift. Mr reznikov led the Ministry Since before the start of russias full scale invasion in february of last year, winning praise for negotiations to secure allied weaponry and expanding ukraines army. But as ukraines government has ramped up investigations into corruption, mr reznikov has become the subject of increasing speculation over financial misconduct, though he has not been personally implicated. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, ukrainian generals claim that they have breached russias formidable first line of defences in the south, near zaporizhzhia. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi told the Observer Newspaper that extensive minefields had blocked troops for several weeks, leaving them vulnerable to russian shelling and drone attacks. But the general claimed that clearing those mines has allowed his forces to advance, saying that ukraine expects weaker Russian Defences ahead. Questions over ukraines slow progress on the battlefie
Of russias full scale invasion in feburary of last year, winning praise for negotiations to secure allied weaponry and expanding ukraines army. But as ukraines government has ramped up investigations into corruption, mr reznikov has become the subject of increasing speculation over financial misconduct, though he has not been personally implicated. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, ukrainan generals claim theyve breached russias formidable first line of defences in the south, near zaporizhzhia. General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy told the Observer Newspaper that extensive minefields had blocked troops for several weeks, leaving them vulnerable to russian shelling and drone attacks. But the general claimed that clearing those mines has allowed his forces to advance, saying ukraine expects weaker Russian Defences ahead. Questions over ukraines slow progress on the battlefield remain, but ukraine says its forces are making steady gains in the south of the country, expanding its units in recent week