this came after the prime minister rejected suggestions that he oversaw budget cuts that meant that crumbling concrete in schools in england was not replaced. it comes after claims from a former senior civil servant that rishi sunak halved the money available for the safety work while he was chancellor in 2021. this afternoon the education secretary apologised after her frustration boiled over during questioning about the way the government was handling the situation. it all comes as thouands of school children mainly in england start the new term not sure whether their schools will be fully open or not. we start tonight with our political editor chris mason on a busy first day back for mp5. fight night good evening, sophie. certainly they fight night good evening, sophie. certainly they see fight night good evening, sophie. certainly they see as fight night good evening, sophie. certainly they see as mp5 - fight night good evening, sophie. certainly they see as
is a pretty crucial question at the heart of this which is was the government taking concerns about this concrete seriously enough? and what we found out this morning which i think will be really tricky for the government is that ministers were told some years ago that more money was needed to deal with some of these building defects. considerable increases in can in funding was needed, in fact the opposite happened and funding was reduced and rishi sunak was the chancellor at the time so undoubtedly prime minister will be asked whether he took these very seriously enough, whether one of the problem is that is now being faced is that there was not enough funding in the first place. i suppose there is a broader political question at this going to be asked which is has the government austerity drive which of course was quite a long time ago now but also some of the ramifications of that, the of that, how is that i had an impact as well? there will be many opposition politicians
for poor performances in training. good afternoon. the new school year begins in england this week with more than 100 schools completely or partially closed because of fears about crumbling concrete, known as raac. a former top civil servant has accused the prime minister rishi sunak of cutting the money for school repairs when he was chancellor mr sunak says it s utterly wrong to blame him. in scotland, 35 schools are affected and checks are under way in wales and northern ireland. ellie price reports. school is back. sort of. but not for those affected by the wrong kind of concrete. for many, it has meant a partial closure of school buildings and a mad scramble right at the start of a new school year, to find alternatives. we at the start of a new school year, to find alternatives. at the start of a new school year, to find alternatives. we have three com anies to find alternatives. we have three companies coming to find alternatives. we have three companies coming out
on days when it wasn t raining, which is illegal. the practice is known as dry spilling and is banned because it can cause environmental harm. let s go live to our environment correspondentjonah fisher who s at langstone harbour in hampshire. thanks. last year, ourwater companies in england released raw sewage into our seas and rivers for 1.75 million hours. sewage was discharged on average 825 times every day. breaking that down still further, that means there was a new sewage discharge, roughly speaking, every two minutes. rural west sussex, and one of southern england s celebrated chalk streams. so here we are, welcome to the river lavant or as we locally call it, the river lav. the river lav. the lav, just full of effluent. rob, a retired businessman, is notjoking. there would be no river lavant in the summer without the treated discharges from the next door sewage plant. when we came it was overflowing, so we had the storm overflow coming out here, untreated sewage com
the labour run council is still struggling to pay off a huge equal pay claim that dates back more than a decade ago. it has also had major issues with a new it system. our midlands correspondent navteonhal is there. the pressure on the city s finances has been rising and rising. europe s biggest local authority is now in biggest local authority is now in big trouble. its problems began more than a decade ago, when a landmark case was brought against the council, which led to it having to pay out more than £1 billion so far in equal pay claims to mostly female staff. but with the authority s revenue budget, the money it spends on recurrent costs like wages, at £750 million, the announcement of this summer but it had up to £760 million still to find to settle the equal pay claims was a huge blow. and that is on top of the botched roll out of a new it system which has set up back and about £100 million. the city council leader who is currently abroad, he says, is part of a l