To be completely shocked by this - Bridget can’t tell us the impact of the government’s VAT on Education?

[Sasskitty]

Bridget Phillipson dodges question on impact of private school tax raid

As parents and schools complain of chaos, Ms Phillipson refuses to spell out details of the assessment made by the department for education

Bridget Phillipson failed to spell out the full impact of the government’s private school VAT raid, dodging the question when asked about the possible implications for special education schools.

While she said the government has “looked at all of the potential impacts”, her answer failed to provide any real detail on the expected consequences.

It comes as parents and schools complain about the implications of the tax raid, which came into force on New Year’s Day and is expected to raise £1.5bn for the Treasury.

YABU - Bridget Phillipson has it all in hand. She just didn’t feel like answering the pesky question. The point is to piss rich people off. Leave Labour alone, they want nothing but erm oh I’m not sure.

YANBU - Phillipson clearly has no idea what the impact of VAT on Education will be. Nor does she really care as long as she’s seen to be punishing those horrible rich people. Or even better (it seems) the not really rich ones just trying to improve the education of their children as the available state schools were not suitable.

https://apple.news/AO7fcmrzuRaik4stLaPQxwA

(sorry paywall but there’s not much more in the article)

PS. I’ve removed the poll tally, no one needs to see real data. Do they?

One head of a private schools ( fees £30k a yesr) compared the ‘threat’ private schools are under to the closing of the coal mines…

Just shows how in touch with the real world these people are…

Is that a school in an area with low local employment and the school is a significant local employer? Because in that case, there may be a loss of a lot of working class jobs. I am sure all the people losing their jobs are thrilled and will raise a toast to the champagne socialists in London like Reeves and Phillipson.

You’re joking. 😂

If it's 30k a year it will a full boarding school, not remotely like the many many average ones with fees around half that if not less. No that is not a helpful comment but unless you can admit and engage with nuance instead of the tedious generalisations, there's no point.

The reason why this move is popular is, in my view, largely due to the general ignorance from the majority of the population about what the private sector actually is, as evidenced on many of these threads and the fact that it's (in theory, if not in practice) a way to raise money from "them" to give to "us", which is always popular, unsurprisingly.

Oh I am not. £28k day, £38k boarders as. About 500 pupils who apparently use the ‘village shop’… yes, just as devastating as the pit closures were to thousands of families if that school was to be lost to the country.

And where do all the staff who work at the school come from? Oh yeah, the surrounding villages: catering, cleaning, groundsmen, teachers, admin staff etc. Indy schools are huge employers and vital to local economy, especially in rural areas with poor transport links.
Our indy schools employs nearly 130 people from the local market town and is the largest employer in that town.

DH is son of a miner, from a mining family so I would never compare the 2 but you are obviously unaware of the impact any of these schools closing will have on the local employment market.

‘No that is not a helpful comment ’
Oh we do agree on something! No, I don’t think the lack of self awareness by many private schools DOES help their cause either and yet they’re still getting headlines like this one in THE TIMES.
‘… leave legacy similar to the closure of the coal mines’
Yet there it is, in black and white, in all its glory.
Removing tax breaks will have the same effect? If this was a comment supposed to get the rest of us onboard, it’s not working.

It isn't a tax break. Hope that helps because you really seem incapable of understanding that.

https://inews.co.uk/news/private-school-vat-overseas-pupils-3402864

Non-UK citizen pupils at ISC schools contribute £2.1 billion to the UK economy annually, including tuition fees and spending by their families. Interesting in light of the Soft Power Council launched last week that education is one of the
UKs strongest soft power assets and the Indy sector attracts parents + pupils from all over the world, that Labour would seek to destroy it.

Of course they are unaware. Champagne socialists from London who went to Oxford. Why would they care about working class jobs in the sticks somewhere @twistyizzy

@Letlooseonthedanse - what is the plan for all the jobs in those types of schools? Why know Labour want the teachers to go to state schools. But the rest of the jobs when these schools go bust - what is the plan?

There isn't because these people are collateral damage.

What is generally overlooked is the impact that the VAT will have on children with SEN, who cannot be educated within the state centre. These are often kids from less well off families, whose fees are paid by EHCPs.

There is no vat exemption for special schools, and non-special schools, with high proportions of sen, are also at risk of closure, which would leave children with SEN without a school.

Apparently the plan is to get most SEND kids back into standard mainstream schools. There must somewhere be an assumption that some SEND is not serious enough and invented by middle class fussy parents to bankrupt councils. So these “precious” parents need to mix with the rest of society. Standards just need to drop for everyone. If you look at what is happening in the US, basically the top rich and oligarchs are in charge now and the rest of us are screwed so the less we are educated and the more suppressed the better. Remember, private schools must only be for the true elite and the Labour champagnes socialists are doing everything they can to make sure that happens.

Labour want SEND back in mainstream through the 'inclusion' plan. So this is 1 of the ways to do that.
There will be no extra funding for staff (just capital projects to enable 'access')but each school will have an inclusion unit, unfunded obviously.

Tax breaks PLURAL my lovely, plural as finally these businesses are going be paying proper business rates.
Charity status hopefully next to go.

Charity status won't go, Labour ruled that out prior to election due to the legal costs. Strange you don't know that as a supporter of the tax on education.
However they have brought a tonne of legal costs on themselves anyway through the High Court challenge. Who pays for the legal costs..........oh yeah the taxpayer.

@Letlooseonthedanse - I am sorry but your posts exactly illustrate the problems this country is in. You believe that someone slightly richer than you who has put their DCs education first is to blame for all the mess! And you are wanting them and their DC to end on a bonfire. When all that is going to happen is that everyone is going to be subjected to the puppeteers in charge very soon. The person slightly richer than you paying a ton of tax into the system with no family wealth has never been the problem. They are working class just like you. Working for a living. And the sooner you realise that the better. Because you are feeding Reform and their ilk - who will drive away all the thinkers and middle class professionals so that they can enrich themselves on what is left of this country.

Busineses make profits. Private schools with charitable status do not. All money raised goes back into the charity to cover running costs and improve the service. There are no dividends, share holders or fat cat bosses ..unlike many of the consortia running academies.

There’s a class of business helpfully labelled Not For Profit. They’re still businesses.

The clue is in the name

The point the poster was making was that they are still businesses.

Actually over half are educational charities, same as Academies.

But we all know they are not charities in the traditional sense of the word. Another classification.

They are educational charities which are audited by Charity Commission and have to follow those rules. Noone ever claimed they are like Barnardos etc but they don't have to be because that's not their aim.
The exam board I work for is an educational charity, the training company i worked for prior to that is an educational charity. Just because you don't believe indy schools fit the description of 'charity' is irrelevant.