Asbestos, RAAC and CIF 2027 to 2028: what the fund will and will not pay for

By Grayling Thomas Architects · October 2026

Yes, the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can pay for asbestos removal. The Department for Education (DfE) puts emergency asbestos removal in its highest-priority group of condition projects, alongside gas and electrical safety, and says schools with significant asbestos that is proving difficult to manage may apply for support to remove it. RAAC is different. The DfE will not accept CIF applications for RAAC mitigations or RAAC roof replacements, because it funds that work through a separate route. This article explains where the line falls and what evidence an asbestos bid needs.

The new round opened on 21 October 2026, and applications with all supporting documents must be in by 12 noon, 15 December 2026. Schools new to CIF must register for a CIF portal account by 12 noon, 30 November 2026. The practice's guide to this round's key dates, rule changes and preparation covers the timetable and the new scoring. What follows deals only with asbestos and RAAC.

For how CIF bids are scored on need, cost and planning across every project type, see the practice's complete guide to CIF funding for schools.

Does CIF pay for asbestos removal?

It does, and it ranks it highly. The DfE's information for applicants for this round says: "We give the highest priority to condition projects that address compliance and health and safety issues." Emergency asbestos removal is named in that group. The list of highest-priority projects later in the document covers health and safety and compliance work "where there is a risk of imminent school closure", and includes "Emergency and managed asbestos removal to facilitate essential works."

Those two words, emergency and managed, describe the cases the fund has in mind. Emergency removal is the clear one. Managed removal is tied to essential works: asbestos that has to come out so that a roof, a heating system or a rewire can go ahead. The DfE also expects most CIF projects to involve the replacement of high-priority components, and it lists asbestos removal with structural elements, boilers, electrics, fire doors, roof coverings and windows.

Removal for its own sake is a much weaker case. Where the material is undamaged and not in a location where it is vulnerable to damage, the guidance's position, set out below, is that it should be left undisturbed and its condition monitored.

The guidance gives one direct instruction about timing. Applicants with significant asbestos that is proving difficult to manage effectively, it says, "may apply to CIF for support to remove it and should plan works around holiday periods." That instruction shapes the whole programme, and it is covered in its own section below.

Asbestos also appears in the cost rules. The guidance uses the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) definition of abnormal costs, which gives asbestos removal as an example alongside demolition, temporary accommodation and specialist substructure works, and says: "Abnormal costs must be clearly identified and justified." A cost plan that hides removal inside a general preliminaries line makes the assessor's job harder, not easier.

The duty to manage asbestos and a CIF bid

CIF sits on top of a legal duty that already exists. The DfE "expects schools, local authorities, academy trusts and other responsible bodies to fulfil their duty to manage asbestos effectively and safely". The responsible body is the main employer of staff in a school, for example the local authority or academy trust.

Responsible bodies must "provide assurance that their schools are compliant with the asbestos management regulations (Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012)". The guidance adds that "The department published updated managing asbestos in your school or college in March 2025 to assist with this responsibility." It is also plain about the paperwork: "Where there is any potential for asbestos to be present, it is a statutory requirement for schools to have an asbestos register and management plan."

For a bid, this cuts one way. The fund supports removal where asbestos is proving difficult to manage, and it is hard to show that without showing how it is being managed now. A current register, a management plan that is actually followed, and records of inspections give the application a base to stand on. Gaps in them are worth closing before the bid is written, whatever happens to the application.

Leaving, monitoring or removing asbestos

The DfE follows the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the regulator. Its advice, as the guidance reports it, is that asbestos-containing materials which are undamaged and not in locations where they are vulnerable to damage "should be left undisturbed, and their condition monitored."

The next sentence is the test a removal bid has to meet: "We are clear, however, that when asbestos does pose a risk to safety and cannot be effectively managed in situ, it should be removed." The guidance gives an example of asbestos that is difficult to manage: material "making access difficult to carry out repairs".

Damage brings its own duty. Where asbestos has been disturbed or damaged, unless the incident is minor and dealt with immediately, the school should notify HSE. The guidance notes that this is a legal requirement under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). Any such report, with the follow-up, belongs in the evidence for a bid.

Can CIF pay for RAAC?

No. Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has its own rule, and the guidance states it without qualification: "CIF applications for RAAC mitigations and/or RAAC roof replacements will not be accepted."

The reason is that the department pays for it another way. It says it "will fund both the immediate and long-term costs relating to the mitigation and removal of RAAC via a separate and additional form of funding." A school with RAAC should not spend time building a CIF bid around it.

Does RAAC affect CIF eligibility?

Not for schools already funded to remove it. The guidance says schools and colleges with capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC "can still apply for CIF funding in the usual way to address these other non-RAAC condition issues."

There is a condition attached. Applicants "should highlight in your CIF application if the project may be impacted by the presence of RAAC and the work that will be planned to permanently remove it." A boiler replacement in a block awaiting RAAC removal, or a window project on the same elevation, needs that relationship set out plainly, so an assessor can see how the two pieces of work fit together. For identifying RAAC in the first place, the guidance points schools to the department's identification guidance.

Evidence an asbestos bid needs

The general evidence rules apply in full. For asbestos, the parts that matter most are these:

• An independent condition survey. Surveys "will not be considered independent if, for example, it is conducted by a firm that has also quoted or tendered for the work or is a manufacturer of any proposed solution". For all projects, applicants must provide the front page showing the date and the surveyor's name and qualification.

• A survey that is recent enough. The guidance says "Surveys should not be older than 1 October 2023."

• Specialist evidence of the issue. The DfE asks for "further specialist evidence of the specific condition issue", and asbestos appears in its list of areas. For an asbestos bid, that will usually mean the register, the management plan and specialist survey information on the areas affected.

• Labelled photographs. "Photographs should be labelled with commentary on the issue being illustrated." The DfE says: "We have introduced an additional 1MB upload that you can use for photographs."

• Incident and maintenance records. The guidance lists "Incident reports, including photographs" and "Maintenance expenditure, including invoices" as evidence of condition.

• Location and extent in the feasibility study. The feasibility study, part of the project planning upload, should include "Knowledge of location of utilities or the location and extent of asbestos and any cost savings as a result of the project."

Volume does not help. "The Project Need upload is limited to a maximum of 50 pages." The DfE also says that "generic letters of support from surveyors are not acceptable as evidence" of condition, priority or urgency. A survey that simply records asbestos as present does not make the case. What does is evidence that the material is damaged, is in the way of essential works, or cannot be managed in place, with a costed plan to remove it.

The practice's article on why a strong condition survey is the key to CIF funding success goes further into grading and priority ratings, and the school condition survey service page covers condition surveys. The guidance says "Surveys must also be from an independent source", so check that independence before appointing the same firm for more than one role.

For a special school, the practice's article on condition surveys for special schools covers what else the survey has to address, and its guide to education building surveys and what school leaders need to know explains how condition grades become evidence for a bid.

Fitting asbestos removal around the school year

The guidance's word is "should": asbestos works should be planned around holiday periods. Its urgency criteria point the same way. High marks go where an issue "must be dealt with over the summer holidays, otherwise likely closure in September 2027 or addressing an area which is already out of use".

Outcomes are listed for "May 2027 (subject to change)". That leaves a short gap before the summer holiday, which is the obvious window for removal in occupied buildings. A bid that already shows a sequence for removal, clearance and the main works, and says which areas close when, is in a better position to use that window than one that leaves it to be worked out after the award.

Removal, clearance and reoccupation each take time, so the programme needs room for all three. Where removal cannot be finished in one holiday, the bid should say how the remaining work will be phased and how occupied areas will be kept apart. Temporary accommodation, if it is needed, is one of the guidance's examples of an abnormal cost and should be shown and justified as one.

Our guide to a school's CDM 2015 duties as client explains the pre-construction information, including the asbestos register, that the school passes to its team before work starts.

Sequencing removal with the main works is part of the design, and the practice's guide to choosing an architect for a school capital project sets out what to check before appointing one.

Related guides

• CIF 2027 to 2028: key dates, rule changes and what to prepare by 15 December

• The CIF application for 2027 to 2028: a section-by-section walkthrough

• CIF for fire safety and compliance works in 2027 to 2028

• CIF funding for roof replacement: what evidence a 2027 to 2028 bid needs

Grayling Thomas Architects on CIF asbestos bids

We are a RIBA Chartered Practice that designs and delivers school buildings, and we act as lead consultant and architect on CIF projects, preparing the condition evidence, design and costed options with the school. Grayling Thomas Architects was CIF bid writer, lead consultant and architect for Dorothy Goodman School in Hinckley, a new building for an existing special school, funded through the Condition Improvement Fund.

Our CIF funding page explains how we work on CIF projects. Any appointment needs to follow your own procurement process, and the DfE is clear that technical advisers cannot apply on your behalf, so it is worth starting early. To talk about an asbestos-affected building or a bid for this round, use our CIF enquiry form.