Whitehall “braced for private schools collapse”

[ICouldBeVioletSky]

Whitehall ‘braced for private schools collapse’ due to fee rises

Worth reading the whole article, it’s not quite as alarmist as the headline suggests. But as you’d expect, gov sources are talking it all down while the ISC is ringing the alarm bell.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e6465c9e-d462-48cb-a73e-74480059a1f3?shareToken=05bf599cd4a2376fe3ce83cdce607100

I’d be quite surprised if some of the schools near us don't fold tbh. There will definitely be a contraction in the sector, I just hope those that hold on can remain a viable concern.

*The poll reported in the Guardian found:

14% strongly disagree with VAT on fees
7% slightly disagree
25% neither agree nor disagree
21% slightly agree
33% strongly agree with VAT on fees*

This policy is really never going to be a major vote loser for the government.

Presumably the 14% strongly disagree might feel strongly enough to change behaviour, but then there’s no breakdown on how people voted in the GE so only the proportion of Labour voters within that group might change how they vote.

The other 86% probably don’t feel strongly enough or they approve of the policy anyway.

Opinion: Labour’s 60-year war on excellence in education impoverishes us all

It started with the assault on grammar schools. VAT hikes and wokifying the curriculum are its latest manifestations
https://apple.news/AnLmkA3NnRuOZBc3twGkh-g

The godfather of mediocrity: Labour’s 1960s Education Secretary Anthony Crosland promised to destroy every grammar school | Credit: BBC

No civilised country taxes education. No sensible country shuts its best schools.

Over a period of 60 years Labour has done both. As of January 1, education is being taxed for the first time as though it were a commercial enterprise, with the imposition of VAT on private school fees.

This is mendaciously depicted by Labour as closing a tax loophole or ending an exemption. It is not the schools that are being taxed as institutions but the services they provide since that is what VAT does.

I'm not talking about changing voting patterns. That isn’t really what will make a difference to the UK.

I'm talking about more significant changes to behaviour which come from the loss of goodwill, such as GPs switching to private practice, people looking into IHT strategies and other ways of minimising tax, or simply not donating to charity.

People often underestimate the value of goodwill until it's lost.

Especially when it's lost from a section of the population which contributes a high proportion of income taxes - and important services like doctors, entrepreneurs (who create jobs), engineers etc.

Yes this is true. I migrated to the Uk in 2004. I have paid untold amounts of taxes. Me alone as a top 10% earner. I nearly cut and run when it looked like Corbyn would get into power. But he did not and we (DH is British) breathed a sigh of relief. We don't see our future here anymore. So we have decided to liquidate and salvage as much as we can and move to my home country. When I have said this before on Mn people say 'fuck off and don't let the door hit you on the way out'. But we are going to be a loss to the UK tax system I believe. Not just from pissing off now, but in the longer term with the loss of our and my assets to IHT in the fullness of time. I used to think the UK was my final resting place in every way that matters. But I can no longer be committed to a situation where I work my arse off and pay in and pay in and pay in only to be told I am a rick fucker who needs to bleed even more while people laugh and cackle while dancing around the pyre.

You’re absolutely right. I certainly do feel less ‘generous’ than I did a year ago. Not just financially but in general life. Polite at all times, but now I know that a significant proportion of the population (really) resent people for no reason other than money, I’ve had enough.

I was talking to someone the other day, a close family member, and she was going on about posh people / rich people in such derogatory (but trying to be funny) ways, I just said ‘Get over it. Some people are richer than you, fgs’. It’s always a one way street with these people - they’re allowed to criticise etc but heaven forbid it goes the other way.

Seriously, have some empathy. Some of these posts are very much 'my diamond shoes are too tight'.

Welcome to the real world. Cuts to state education have been biting for many years and no one gave a flying fig.

So you're basically telling me, a single mum with a child on talent scholarship/bursary won by years of hard work and sacrifice of everything "it's perfectly fine the gov robs your child of their hard earned money and I don't care their life was turned upside down and they were torn apart from their school friends and family, I do approve of the gov as you paupers should have cut your cloth accordingly and never dare to aspire to anything".

How very nice of you.

@Sasskitty @strawberrybubblegum Yes, exactly — whatever you think of Blair, he understood that you’ve got to bring along the people at the top of the income range because they’re not only contributing the most net tax, but they have more opportunities to change what they do and how they behave economically and fiscally.

I’ve always been a Labour voter and I work in education. (I even once stood as a ‘practice’ Labour parliamentary candidate in a safe Tory seat!) I cancelled my membership during the Corbyn years for a whole host of reasons, but primarily the nonsense Corbynite policies which were just like this. I can’t vote Tory, but Labour is no longer the party I want to vote for either. (Politically homeless atm.)

Starmer & co. simply do not understand that to create a fairer society you need to have as many people as possible on board. I would be happy to pay more in income tax, but I don’t like spiteful and badly-constructed policies that directly target the children of specific social groups. You tax people fairly and progressively, not in such a way that the rich don’t care but kids with SEN get hammered. This tax isn’t fair, it targets education which is a merit good in itself, instead of all sorts of things that aren’t (start with buy to let landlords if you want to really make a difference to inequality.)

It also doesn’t get how people work. If spiteful posters think it’s fine to make my daughter suffer for no reason, why would I be happy to be taxed more elsewhere? Maybe I stop feeling like we’re all in it together to make the country better, and start thinking that if I’m getting targeted, I’ll make some changes to stop the likelihood that I’ll be taxed in other ways. Maybe I’ll start looking at how I can use pension contributions or other ways of reducing my tax liability. Maybe I’ll be less keen to contribute in other ways, or to support charities or other policies that I might otherwise support. All of which is how people naturally behave when they feel like they’ve taken a hit or been unfairly targeted and they think it’s someone else’s turn next.

Spitefulness creates spitefulness in return. If someone’s crowing about how my kid will get a bit of deserved grit if she has to move schools in an exam year, am I going to feel sorry for them if they have to pay up IHT? Or have to sell their house to pay care home fees? No I am not. And I might even vote for it, next time.

Fair taxes benefit all. Unfair taxes create social distrust and reduce social cohesion. The current Labour government don’t seem to have a clue about how to go about giving us all a vision about how things like education, social mobility and social cohesion are themselves crucially important social goods.

You do have my empathy, I promise. If our LA had offered DS1 a state education then we wouldn’t ever have thought of private education for either of our children.

But all Labour seems to be offering state education is a third of an extra teacher per school and a free breakfast and telling teachers to try harder.

Kindly, I don’t think it’s private school parents you need to be angry at. Yes the Tories completely screwed up the state education system but if Labour has any plan at all to improve it, they certainly haven’t shared it publicly.

I suppose not, but if they are that stupid populist and incapable of planning generally, then we'll have further problems with the economy. I very much doubt we can afford it.

Brexit bus was a massive PR success and vote winner 😁

@Ubertomusic I am that single mum. Ds, on a scholarship, is in the lower sixth. We have 5 terms to go.

I was managed out of my job in August and received a redundancy payment which I will use to cover the next couple of terms. Ironically the govt will collect 20% VAT but no 40% PAYE from that payment. 🙄

I've found a new job, so we'll manage the final year, just.

I'll never vote Labour again. Their spite is breathtaking.

The poll reported in the Guardian found:
14% strongly disagree with VAT on fees
7% slightly disagree
25% neither agree nor disagree
21% slightly agree
33% strongly agree with VAT on fees

So three times as many as are affected, agree that it’s a bad idea.

Similar here, I had always been leaning left but not radical left and as a member voted against Corbyn when there was a leadership vote after Brexit. I didn't vote in GE as it's all become farcical anyway, FPTP is preventing the real change to happen and there is no real political representation for those who cannot side with either of the two parties.

The rise of populist politics and brainwashing on a massive scale through SM is killing democracy in any case.

at a certain amount of tax charged to a person, they will indeed start to minimise tax. At a certain point it just gets enough, and the spite from some people on these threads is unbelievable.

But decent people will not stop giving to charity I think. Gifts to charity is tax deductible. If you are feeling cross with the government and still want to contribute to society, I would recommend finding a UK charity close to your heart and donate to that. It will cost you more out of pocket but it will ensure that your money goes to causes you care about, not to the chancellor.

As a previous poster rightly said - if you want to tax wealth, tax wealth; don’t tax education as a proxy for wealth.

Labour is meant to be the party for those who care about others and who care about society more broadly; but targeting people’s children when you should just be taxing their income (or assets!) is weaselly and also (crucially) likely to be ineffective and counterproductive.

Well, one thing I can predict is that a lot of high-income people will probably give charity donations to their former schools, rather than to other charities. That’s gift-aid-able! I can foresee that a lot of charitable donations will be getting redirected from other causes to people’s alma maters. Another unintended consequence of this policy! 😆

I had to stop all payments to charity, I simply don't have any spare cash anymore.

I never give to big charities anymore. But I do give to local small charities. As I did before Xmas.

And ironically I just got a very self-congratulatory Labour Party email about how we all need to pull together as a society to deliver change for everyone. 🙄 Well fuck that, we’ve done our bit now with this tax so I don’t feel like pulling together for anything else 😆

Make sure you include it in your tax return. You will get a tax rebate 😀

I never do that either. Should really.

Oh my goodness. I feel validated by this post, and the one by @BugsyMaroon . And all the others after.

I'm socially liberal, vote blue in the US, red in the UK. If you use the words "underdog", "disenfranchised" etc., I'm usually there defending said target. I have always deeply believed in the power of education to uplift, change lives, bring out the best in humanity by standing on the shoulders of giants because of the effect on my own life. It isn't just lip service. Last year, on earned salary and earnings alone, our household paid over £250k in general taxes, and donated £25k to education charities. That is on earnings/salary from 30 year careers of fucking hard graft, student loans, delayed parenthood, postings abroad, the works. I wasn't born rich, I worked for it. The taxes alone are enough to support multiple families on this thread wholesale. And yet... apparently that's not enough. From feeling fine about paying that whopping amount of tax that makes this country run, I've now gone to absolute rage and confusion that actually maybe the Tories were right after all, about the multitudes sucking on the benefits teat, and asking for more, unable to wean. It's a shocking position to find oneself in when you're the one supplying the milk and feeling confused when the baby bites the nipple.

And here we are at the end of 2024. I've realised I'm not actually Labour, I was a Clintonite and Blairite, and a centrist all along. You need both hands to clap.

The loss of goodwill from people in my position - normally left wing voters, high earning, massive net contributors, influential in our particular professional circles, supporters of progressive politics - is immense. I'll never vote for this shit show again. I can absolutely afford the tax and will pay it, as I have so many many taxes before. But I know what it means for the education ecosystem, and for that I am angry. More than that, I recognise mendacious populist politics when I see it and I am angry about that too. I thought we were done with that with the Tories out of the way, but I don't agree with so much of what Starmers govt is doing. (Don't get me started on the state of American politics, that's another story for another bottle of whiskey).

What's that saying? The Tories are morally bankrupt, and Labour are intellectually bankrupt. Guess I'm politically homeless now too. What an epiphany on the eve of 2025. Happy new year everybody.