To be gleeful that most of us were right

[Wranglestar]

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/adding-vat-to-private-school-fees-has-had-no-obvious-impact-on-state-sector-applications-390546/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2ATdaVlNkJsbtC-KizuW4Fw41obnpvezxnFv4IAFwzJPHXmU90Awr5eqAaem9tMIsn9I0vHSC4jrdYONIA#0rd9makyd4264nstc4us9j77yk5kaoswtLondon Economic

And that private schools has had no impact on state school places. The rich have simply - paid more. Excellent news!

Id wait a few years before crying out with glee. It might be that people will suck it up for 1-3 years to get their kids through etc, but they might not send siblings or send their first born to inde in 2026

Lol so dumb.

Of course it's not affected yet, but it will be. And your local authority will be spending £6k per child to educate them.

Enjoy less resources and stop being jealous

It doesn't work like that.

Some parents will move to state, and now they don't have to pay school fees they will:

• move to working part time
• spend the money on tutors (many are overseas these days) and extra curriculars to compensate for what they no longer get from school.
• pay more into their pension funds
• spend the money on holidays
• spend the money on investing in a house near sought after comprehensives or grammars

It's not the case that all or even most of school fee money will now go into the local economy.

Gleeful - aren't you a delight.

I think it's nearer £8k.

Crazy

Our local town was thriving with the private school pupils eating in restaurants and coffee shops. Also spending in clothes shop. Now shops are closing and the eateries are struggling.

What - in the past two months???

This and the other pp on the same lines

Gleeful? blimey. Not kind at all.

Exactly this. I think that many people haven’t grasped the knock on effect of this. At our school, it’s quite common for the children to go to the local cafe and get a milkshake/hot chocolate after school. The increase in school fees, combined with recently increased prices due to the upcoming NIC and minimum wage changes, means that families are having to think twice about such spending. Those children who bought 1 drink a week, might not be buying any now, or only having it once a month. Others who bought 2 drinks a week are now only buying 1. Who is affected here? It isn’t the school children. It’s no great hardship having to do without a milkshake. Those who suffer are the shop owners and their employees. Local shops are closing and not employing as many staff.

personally - and I know we are in a privileged position to be paying school fees in the first place - we’ve cut back on other areas as we didn’t have the VAT amount spare in our income.

I’m not gleeful that I’ve stopped the DC music lessons to help fund the VAT - but I am sad that their music teachers - who are self employed, so it affects their income - have less money.

Neither am I gleeful that we have stopped using the school coach service which was really handy but expensive. Now I’m driving my kids instead. Adding to the pollution that everyone gets to breathe in.

Plenty of other areas where we have also tightened our belts (and I know not all can tighten them this way) but I don’t think any of them carry zero negative effects for anyone else.

And I’m sad for anyone whose life is made inadvertently harder by that belt tightening.

Rich people didn’t want to pay more so tried to convince poor people it would affect them too when in reality it doesn’t. Sounds about right.

Exactly this

Yes! Where do you think families are finding thousands of pounds a year from? Not thin air! Discretionary spending on things like cafes and clothes shops are the first thing to go. It’s an easy saving to make. It doesn’t particularly affect the children or parents (nice new clothes and cafes are hardly necessities), but it is having a huge impact on small business located near private schools.

I'd be interested to see if the same is true for sixth form places.

We're spoiling the OP's 'happy dance', misguided and silly as it is. She's delighted to be 'right'. The consequences matter not.

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Nothing.

And yet the poster I was responding to thinks that all or most of the money going on increased private school fees would be coming out of the local economy. Go figure.

Exactly this. I know lots of people who’ve stopped music lessons. I feel really sorry for the teachers. For those families who aren’t massively wealthy but were comfortable and had enough for discretionary spending on things like clothes, meals out, cafes etc, they are now having to cut back. I’d say a lot of families fall into this category. It’s no great hardship to have a few less takeaway coffees, meals out or new clothes. It does affect local small businesses when multiple families are doing this.

Quite. People like OP (and I've met a few over the years) are not happy people.

God, I wouldn't like to be them!

I don’t feel strongly about it either way but it’s incredible that some people are still pretending that, outside of certain SEN requirements, private education isn’t a luxury good.

Pull the other one. If it didn’t confer an inherent advantage, you wouldn’t get it.

Have you seen more funding to state schools, and have these Labour policies helped people?

eg what about the welfare cuts?

My plan next year is to apply for state school and private. If he gets into the state school I want then great, he’ll go there but if he gets 2nd or 3rd choice I’ll go private. I assume others will do the same so it’s really too soon to tell. ( I know this will seem selfish to some but I’m doing what’s best for my family )

In the short term, the first thing people will do is try to cut back to afford the fees. Some have remortgaged and pre-paid fees, thus avoiding the VAT. Many families have also looked at their finances and grandparents, in some cases, have stepped in to help them through to the next stage of education (with the added bonus of saving IHT).

In the longer term, families will look at making the switch to state. There’s one council (I can’t remember which) who’ve said that there has been a 10% increase in application to switch to state at Y7 this year. The affect of this is mitigated slightly by falling birth rates.

Well it was obviously never going to cause the mayhem some on here said it would. I mean 7% of children go to private school (although when using Mumsnet it may seem more like 70% 😂) and most will be able to afford the increase so only a tiny number will move to state school.

I'm pretty sure most schools have a far bigger issue when loads of houses are built in the town bringing in new families or when there's a baby boom year.

Saying that I'm not gleeful that I was right this post feels a little communisty/jealous, I was right but I don't care.