Will parents move to areas closer to Outstanding/Good schools rather than pay VAT

[LadyConfused2024]

Sorry for the long message. This really? Do you think many parents will sell up/rent near a better school and take their kids out of private school rather than pay the VAT fee increase?

These are purely selfish reasons as I want to move and think that house prices are going to go up a lot in areas with good state schools.

Thanks in advamce.

Parents have been doing this for years!

They already do

Of course! Don't forget that smaller (cheaper) independent schools are already closing forcing those parents to choose between forking out for the expensive schools + VAT or moving into a better state school area. It's inevitable.

Of course they will.

Our plan is to move to somewhere with outstanding state schools and then pull ours out of their private schools at natural exit points.

Of course. I know 3 families for whom VAT has been the deciding factor in not doing private and with all the cash they save they'll be buying next door to the primary school of their choice and then the same for secondary. This policy was always going to worsen inequality for the good state schools, whilst not making much/any money. Good job Bridget!

Yes. Of course many people will do this.

This already happens, regardless of the VAT situation. You’re very late to the party if you’re only now thinking of moving to avoid VAT. Good luck with your future endeavours.

I think though it'll be more those who don't start than those who leave

Here it's a bit more nuanced because we have a few grammars that have quite a big catchment so you'll see people moving into catchment from outside (was possible to get in not in catchment if you scored highly but apparently this year it's not as the numbers applying increased a lot), but the catchment is big enough that it will dilute the impact and you could still live in a super cheap area and be in catchment and just tutor like crazy for 11+ even if the primary school was not the best.

If they can’t afford the increase moving to good schools catchment area would be their best option.

They already do, but I’m a landlord and I have 2 families who rented my properties because of their location next to outstanding schools, when they heard VAT was probably happening on their kids private school. Theyre in the process of moving their kids now. They’re looking to buy in the area but renting until they find something.

I agree with this- plus I think there will be more people who take a hybrid approach, so maybe they do private primary to improve chances of a grammar place for secondary if relevant, or they do state primary and then private for Y7-11 and then back to a 6th form college for A levels (I did this myself many decades ago).

Yes, it’ll increase the number of people doing this, especially at the standard entry points

Or people will do both like I have chosen to do. Previously deliberately bought outside of good state school catchment areas as I didn’t want to pay twice for education. At the end of last year I moved into the catchment area for two outstanding schools as a backup. No intention of removing my DC from their private school but I fully expect this to be just the start of the raid on private schools and you never know where we will end up.

Wouldn’t they have already done that rather than pay for private ed?

weird that they couldn’t afford 20% extra but could afford stamp duty 😏

This is what I don't quite understand - stamp is so unbelievably high if buying an unremarkable house in a nice area of South East England, that if your house is more than £1m the stamp duty alone is a good portion of private school for one child. If someone has multiple kids though I guess it wouldn't be the case

Yes, of course. I know several families that have moved in the last few months. Most are renting in catchment and will move back later

Only if they don't really understand what Ofsted actually does and that it's really fairly meaningless.

Depends on number of kids and number of years and of course on the school. If 2/3 kids and planning to go from 4-18 then that's maybe 300k per kid- almost 1m in total. If looking at boarding you could be talking 250k just for Years 9-13 for one child.

It’s not weird when people often have multiple children they’re putting through primary and secondary.

Of course. It’s a natural consequence of the policy. Would-be private school parents will effectively buy their way into the best state schools. Less well-off kids will be pushed out. The VAT isn’t the democratising measure Labour would have people believe, they’re just tinkering with how inequality presents.

I honestly think it’s horseshit. I have many friends who moved into properties purely for school catchment reasons - it’s extremely common.
The reality, as my sister has just experienced, is paying £150k more for a smaller house than the ones £150k less 500m away. That is for one of the best schools in the country.
she’s done it- stamp duty aside- because the property is also an investment.

its fairly unusual to be able to move “next door” to an outstanding primary and also be “next door” to an outstanding secondary as stated above.

finally, there are outstanding schools in every town, they are in no way exclusive or that special. Anyone moving their child from a chosen academically or sports high achieving private school to a standard outstanding secondary is a chump imo. What do they think it’s going to be like?!

We had planned to send our DC private. Once it was clear VAT was coming in we decided to move to an area with universally excellent state schools instead.

We could easily have afforded the VAT, but I decided that I pay a hell of a lot of tax already, so rather than paying yet more tax and paying for my children's education, I'd just buy a really lovely house in a really lovely area and top up with tuition and extra curriculars as needed instead and save the money for a chunky house deposit for them instead.

Because we moved out of London to facilitate it we're now mortgage free with very low costs compared to previously. So it's done us a favour in that respect.

Of course the policy is creating a whole new level of inequality as prices where we are have now rocketed, pricing out a lot of people and creating more demand for school places.

How many would they have?!? Say 4 children, needing to pay 20% more at an average secondary at £20k a year. An extra £16k a year, just over a grand a month? Come on.