To wonder if Labour really understand the implications of their attack on private schools?

[Bumpitybumper]

I've just found out a private school near me is almost certainly closing. I honestly think this is a disaster for everyone involved. Obviously the direct employees (teachers, caretakers, caterers and cleaners etc) and the suppliers will suffer. The children will now need to find a new school either in the state or private sector. Easier said than done considering many of the good local schools are full so there it isn't like they are applying for a state schools with a full range of options that everyone else has. Most importantly though, I wonder if the government has quite anticipated the type of children that they are disrupting and harming here.

I withdrew my child from this private school because the school was basically acting as a bit of a school that unofficially specialised in SEN and my child doesn't have a SEN so it was a poor fit. Many of the children struggled with behaviour, socialising and needed adaptions to the school day to keep them on an even keel. The school managed this fine as it was small enough to adapt and create an environment that wasn't too stressful for the children. I am seriously worried about what will happen to these kids now. I don't think many of them could cope in a state setting, especially one that is struggling already to deliver a good level of education to the children there. I honestly think these children will either have their own education decimated or they will incredibly disruptive and resource hungry which will impact other kids. I feel really angry on these poor children's behalf. The parents that I know that sent their kids there were doing so as a last resort because they had been failed by the state sector.

AIBU to think that Labour really hasn't thought through who they are impacting with their anti private school policies? They are nowhere near nuanced enough to target the privileged only and inevitably many struggling and SEN kids are going to be hugely detrimented by this.

All of these misconceptions have been debunked many times over on here. Many/most private schools are not businesses but charities/nonprofits - these are run in exactly the same way as state academies and do not make profits.

Education and education services are considered not a luxury but a right and are tax exempt in most countries around the world, including all the EU. This exemption is everywhere, and isn’t a “tax swindle” any more than books being VAT-free is a “tax swindle”. (It’s honesty really thick and mendacious to keep trotting out these idiots’ talking points.)

If you think these are services in the same way ice creams are, tell me why the government is only levying VAT on education provided by private schools, and not any other kind of education services, including nurseries/preschools/tutoring/music teaching/dance and drama teaching/further and higher ed/any other kind of education services? So music tuition paid for in a private school environment is now VAT-able, but the same music tuition from the same teacher delivering the same music tuition outside a private school isn’t. Make that make sense.

small private schools go bust all the time. I don’t agree with VAT at all btw, but it’s being used as an excuse more widely than is really accurate

Only now because they can’t balance the books. If they had spent more effort on effective policies rather than petty politics they may well have not had to do such deep benefits cuts. They wasted time and resources on headlines grabbing, ideological, point scoring rather than focusing on the big picture

The combination of VAT, NI increase and business rates reforms has been a huge hit. As I mentioned unthread, you can see the turmoil that many industries are in following the announcement of Trump's tariffs. These tariffs are small fry compared to what private schools have faced over the past year.

I agree with this policy. I don't see why private schools should not be treated like any other business. I hope the money raised is going to be ploughed into state schools for the benefit of all children. Although I do understand why parents of some SEND kids opt for private.

I don't agree with the gov policy to get rid of winter heating payments and reduce the amount of people who qualify for PIP.

What money raised? It literally takes a small fraction of the kids that would be privately educated to use state schools and all savings are eroded.

For example, I switched my child from private to state school. That's now saved me thousands and costed the state £6k. If a decent number of the children from the closed private school do the same then that's an awful lot of VAT you need to raise to offset this and even make the policy cost neutral.

Most private schools are not businesses but charities, so they don’t make profits and their accounts work like any state academy’s does.

It’s likely that the cost of schools closing (and making ordinary people redundant, eg staff and admin and ordinary workers), plus the cost of kids moving back into state, may raise very little money and could cost the taxpayer money in the end.

Will you think it’s a good policy if it doesn’t raise any money at all, but actually puts more pressure on state schools, whilst also making a lot of people redundant?

That would absolutely be the best outcome, and I'm sure we will see huge improvements soon from all the huge amounts of money raised by VAT being added to school fees.......

There is a huge crisis in SEN, and councils and schools are moving resources away from mainstream provision into SEN without any noticeable positive change for children with SEN, and a significant negative change for children without SEN. This isn't 'just' a SEN crisis, but an education crisis. Becoming a governor has been really disheartening, seeing the impact this government has had on education is devastating, just when we thought it couldn't get worse, labour came and further slashed budgets.

I absolutely dont blame parents who opt for private, knowing what I know now, I absolutely would move mine if we could afford it

What money raised? It’s about £4.50 once you offset the increased cost to the state sector, if it’s going to be positive at all - no-one knows and as it was an ideologically driven policy the government doesn’t care.

As was well-publicised at the time, even the government’s optimistic figures wouldn’t have paid for one extra teacher per school and given that we’ve since learned the government won’t be fully funding recommended pay rises for existing teachers I’m not sure why you’d think that state schools will benefit at all from this policy.

I have 2 kids in state primary and although I think taxing education is fundamentally disgusting, I’d at least have understood if kids like mine would see any (literally ANY) benefit but they won’t - it’s just stupid spite.

”attack” 🙄

Exactly. Anti growth policies mean halving growth and lower receipts, no more borrowing so welfare cuts it is.

Those who championed those anti growth policies and didn’t want the latter probably should thought it through.

It is an attack. Have you seen them target any other sector like this? Rushing through punitive measure to make sure they hurt them as much as possible.

This. Very few schools if any would be closing due to the VAT increase. Private schools close every year due to financial difficulties. Many closed before Labour even won the election. If a private school is closing, its very unlikely to be primarily the result of these increases.

Of course they would! This is crazy. If you suddenly added a 20% tax onto any sector then loads of businesses would close. Sure, they would be the ones without tonnes of reserves, but the vast majority of sound businesses operate without huge reserves. Just because you can't absorb a 20% tax increase, an increase in NI and business rates it doesn't mean your business is fundamentally unsound.

Just to add, I run a business and it is profit making and sustainable. It absolutely wouldn't survive the onslaught of VAT/NI/Business Rates hikes that the private school sector has incurred. I wonder if many people on this thread have run businesses and understand how hard it is.

No because no other businesses have had the sort of tax breaks that private schools have had. It was in the manifesto. They were voted in. I’m not sure why you expected them to do a volte face when elected.

And yes, I have run a business for 26 years. I understand what a business is.

What X2Boys said!!!!

Education shouldn’t be a business!!!

It has been a LONG time coming - if schools chose to put their heads in the sand, then that’s on them.

Businesss in the education sector have always had tax breaks. Most still enjoy them! As do private healthcare providers. It's also important to remember that private schools are often ran as non for profit charities and therefore it isn't really fair to compare them to a business.

I didn't expect them to change their minds but I suppose I did think that the motivation behind their policy was to sock it to the privileged. I think they had Eton and Harrow in mind. I genuinely don't think they necessarily intended to harm the kids in the private school that is closing. They may see these kids as collateral damage but somehow I feel like they didn't even consider them. They simply worked on the assumption that private school = rich and privileged.

Fair enough about the extra money…… but the £6k the state school will get will be hugely beneficial to all children. The state/ school’s operating costs will barely increase by taking on your child but they will have nearly an extra £6k to spend on improving the outcomes for all children.

state schools are operating in ridiculously tight margins and a few extra £6k will make the world of difference.

20% on any sector in one go will damage it, look at tariffs.

For some reason people rub their hands when it’s children’s education. Go figure.

And Labour are still talking about cuts to state education so what’s the point?

It often isn't. Lots of private schools are run as charities.

My point is though, people are being incredibly naive to suggest that only the fundamentally flawed private schools will go out of business. The ones that were already predestined to do so. This just isn't how it works. Policies like this has a real and meaningful impact on businesses and can be the difference between surviving and shutting down.

I agree with VAT on private school fees. I'm not against private education but why should they be exempt from vat. I just read the other day parents on the whole are prepared to pay more.

Where do you think the £6k comes from? Genuine question. Do you think the education budget increased when my child joined their state school?