England: Courthouses to be urgently checked for dangerous aerated concrete
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English courthouses built in the 1990s are being urgently checked for the presence of dangerous aerated concrete after its discovery at a London court building.
The UK government is scrambling to respond to a developing crisis over the historic use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in public buildings.
The concrete, which was used for cost-saving reasons from the 1950s until the 1990s, weakens over time and was implicated in the collapse of a school roof in 2018.
Over 100 schools have been closed out of concerns for the safety of pupils — and there are now concerns that court buildings could also be affected.
Harrow Crown Court in north London, which opened in 1991, was forced to close last month following the discovery of RAAC during improvement works, the BBC reports.
The building was not one of six ‘buildings of concern’ identified by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in a 2021–22 review because it had only examined buildings opened from the 1960s to 1980s.
The government has now ordered tests on buildings opened in the 1990s, according to the BBC.
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