Knock on anyone’s door across the country and ask about the great domestic challenges which the UK faces. We can all guess what the issues will be: the state of the economy, tax and spending priorities, the costs of living, concerns on welfare, the NHS, water quality, immigration, or climate change.
Asbestos is not likely to be mentioned.
But the crumbling state of the UK’s public services, dilapidated schools and hospitals, a nation that can’t seem to build anything anymore – and certainly not on budget – these are key issues the public care about. Just look at the polls to see the public’s mood.
Rightly horrified by the tragedy of Grenfell Tower and shocked that hundreds of schools were structurally unsound due to RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) 3 in 5 are now more concerned about building safety, 21% stating their concerns have ‘significantly increased’.
Of even greater alarm to the Government should be polls from organisations like More In Common and BMG Research showing a clear trend that over 7 in 10 say the country is on the ‘wrong track’ or ‘broken’ – the public exhausted “with crumbling public services” and pointing blame at the system itself rather than any singular political party or leader.
When launching the 10-year Infrastructure Strategy earlier this year in June, the Chancellor hit the nail on the head when she stated that “crumbling public buildings are a sign of the decay that has seeped into our everyday lives because of a total failure to plan and invest.” They agreed that after years of false promises, confidence in our ability to build things is failing. The UK’s “proud history” of building world-leading infrastructure is a distant memory.
One of the greatest signs of this decay is the UK’s toxic asbestos legacy, a shackle which underlines that this country has failed to build the modern infrastructure required for the 21st century. Our inability to tackle this problem is emblematic of everything that is going wrong.
Because let us be clear: we aren’t tackling this problem. Asbestos remains the no.1 cause of workplace death, responsible for thousands of deaths each year. It is estimated that 80% of schools and 90% of hospitals still contain asbestos, putting our public servants and the people they serve, including schoolchildren, at serious risk of exposure.
Despite a momentous shift in Government policy in February 2025, that there is now “agreement between HSE and government to ultimately look to remove asbestos entirely from the built environment”, progress remains unfathomably slow.
This was exemplified by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in October, when she announced RAAC would be removed from all schools by 2029, with no such similar pledge made for asbestos. Funding priorities clearly remain unbalanced.
There have been many people calling for something to be done. The most powerful voices in this conversation are those who bear the greatest burden: the many courageous patients and victims who are suffering the consequences of exposure to asbestos, including rare cancers such as mesothelioma.
They are joined by industry leaders at the frontline of surveying and removing asbestos, who know better than anyone the scale of the challenge and the dangers of delay.
A further coalition of trade unions, charities, the legal and insurance sectors and journalists exists which has also been advocating for change and there is clear evidence that politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have been listening — even at the highest levels of Government.
In 2023, former Conservative MP, Andrew Percy, introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill calling for the creation of a national asbestos register – a critical first step to understanding the scale of the problem facing the UK. It sadly never passed into legislation.
In October 2024, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called asbestos “an awful killer,” and promised, “whatever we need to do to reduce that risk, we absolutely need to do it.” Sir Stephen Timms MP, the current minister responsible for asbestos policy, deserves enormous credit for his work as Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee under the last Parliament to drive attention on this issue forwards.
His recent announcement of an ‘asbestos census of public buildings’ could become another major leap forwards in progress – though only if HSE brings in the experts from industry and civil society to help this become a success.
The consensus which exists across the political divide, professions and backgrounds, and stretches to every corner of the UK, needs to show a common drive and will for things to change much more quickly. New approaches are needed to tackle the UK’s asbestos crisis – because no one should have to risk their life simply by going to work or attending school.
Other countries, such as Australia, provide a clear model to follow. Over a decade ago, back in 2014, the Australian Government published a National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Management and Awareness. They are now in phase three of this plan, which will run from 2024-2030, published with the contributions of key stakeholder groups, who endorsed the plan highlighting it will save more than 28,000 lives.
This level of strategic planning is not beyond the UK Government. This level of strategic planning is what the British public deserve.
Again, the Government recognised as much in their Infrastructure strategy, stating that the successful repair of the UK’s public building estate “requires a strategic approach… This does not currently exist, and that must change.”
Well, let’s do something about that. Let’s write an Asbestos Strategy for the UK.
