Private School VAT Backtrack?

[SofaThrow]

There seem to be rumours swirling that Starmer has decided not to bring in the VAT on private schools until possibly 2025/6. After being very clear last year that there would be no phase in and that they would bring it in immediately.
Nothing is as yet confirmed I don't think.

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So funny. Are you an armchair detective? Google is very easy to use. As is the school fee checker site. I've just tried it again for the area I grew up in and again 15k is the absolute cheapest.

Did you not like that link?

Maybe! Are you saying that you worked it all out yourself and then came to the exact same figures and wording as a company on the internet that happens to come up as the first result on a google search? Because that's pretty funny. 😄

I’m sorry but the objections all seem to be in the “I’m Labour but not if affected financially by their policies”. It’s totally reasonable not to want to pay more, but be honest about the motive. The Labour Party are not going to turn over this idea for the very few it affects. Implying that there needs to be something approaching a Royal Commission in terms of doing it is ridiculous. Incoming governments must speak to the Civil Service about implementing policy. That conversation has already been had I should think.

The number of votes in this for Labour in private school parents is tiny. That is baked in to this decision.

I deleted it as I felt bad showing up your copying and pasting but here it is for you. Uncanny isn't it?

https://www.sjp.co.uk/individuals/news/how-much-does-private-education-cost

My DH had an assisted place. His mum worked cleaning jobs. He's a good example of social mobility. Fortunately, he'd finished school by the time assisted places were abolished - but as a result, he will never vote Labour. His parents were Labour voters, right up until the assisted places debacle.

Not all of the electorate who aren't in private schools will support the VAT policy - many will see it for what it is: a very divisive attempt to win votes and a tax on education - which is absolutely not what VAT was introduced for.

Popular things win votes - job done.

That doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.

Agreed. I am also not sure why it's so popular with people as it is just not a sensible policy and it won't do what they are claiming that it will. It's a lot of kerfuffle for not much really.

Are you selectively ignoring the comments about it being potentially financially and legally unsound? Concerns about the broader impacts on education, which might vary from nonexistent to quite problematic depending on your locality? Concerns that whether you can pay or not it might send your school into closure at short notice?

you don’t have to be directly affected to think this is a bad policy. In fact I think anyone who looks into it in any detail should be concerned

Look at what Labour has become!

Hope you never complain about energy and food price rises.
Thanks for showing me Labour is now Tory.

You don't need to feel bad. It was obvious I had c&p - I put it in quotes deliberately. Anyone could find it.

It is a very useful link - it led me to the school fee checker site as I said. That's been really interesting. As I said, your school seems to be one of the cheap ones.

I'm saying I also used that site to check up on fees of private schools in my area and also in the area I grew up. Both came to a similar figure of 19-20k average. 15k is the cheapest in both areas. It's not difficult and I've already explained it to you once.

Obviously I didn't come up with that wording. I deliberately put it in quotation marks so people would know it was a quote. I hope you don't teach English.

Pretty funny but maybe you will understand it this time around.

I don't think anyone has suggested a royal commission but a proper impact assessment, cost benefit analysis and published legal advice is surely the minimum we should expect from elected representatives, & then they too can make a better informed decision

It's not a delay. It's BAU. It was never going to be applied to 2024/25. It's a bit of clever marketing.

(Love your username btw!)

I hesitate to point out that the school is the business. I think the vast majority of schools will survive and carry on.

As for legally and financially flawed, as I say, the Labour Party will already have had those conversations with the Civil Service to predict and check how this can be done. Posters here need to remember that the Labour Party will be the lawmakers- they can change the law to make this work. And if you think oh they cannot do something so outrageous then I refer you to the last five years where the Government admitted it would break laws or not comply with its own Human Rights Act tacitly. If the Labour Party go even half as far as this one in pushing legal changes it will be radical. This policy is not impossible.

You are dreaming. Maybe there will be an equality assessment. Fully published legal advice absolutely not. What a joke.

It’s being kicked to the long grass, and likely never will come in due to impact on state sector, he just said it, like all the other pledges that have been kicked out, to stay popular with some people. As he may actually get into power he needs to be honest it’s not happening.

Hopefully they’re looking at the shit-show they’re exacerbating in places like Cambridge, where an already under provisioned school system is seeing over a hundred kids not offered even their third choice school. They’re being offered places at schools 10-15 miles outside the city.

It’s obviously not just because of independent>state migration but there will be plenty of those too. Several Cambridge state secondary’s, and Hills sixth form already have a good enough reputation to attract families that might have gone independent in other cities.

Surely it's more of a joke to implement a policy without legal advice (at the very least to cabinet) or to pursue a policy when that advice may include breaches to existing age discrimination judgements, equality law, ECHR guidance etc it would just smack of Rwanda policy (with a red rosette on it)

Not to mention if the £1.6billion currently on the big red bus was proved to be inaccurate, & the policy will cost the treasury more than it makes & then causes significant disruption to both the private & state system - not really a joke at all

@Daddybegood please be real. Don’t you understand that every government has legal advice on its policies. Why do you think otherwise?

Well, they have form for getting ahead of their skis on other educational policy (charitable status the most recent example), so either they aren’t getting the advice or the advice isn’t very good.

They never said when it would be brought in, it is also the case that legislation takes time so September 25 is the likely earliest date

Because Labour could enact this policy in a finance bill I.e. without legal advice, debate etc... which is much easier but without the proper scrutiny this policy needs, & without which there would likely be legal problems down the line (discrimination: age/disabilty, ECHR etc),
...not to mention their previous advice (provided prior to them abandoning their charity status policy) was flawed & has been disputed by other reports e.g. EDSK which suggest there is no monetary benefit but significant disruption

It needs phasing in. Kids beginning primary, secondary or sixth form. Private school is a lifeline for some kids though.

The two issues I'll be voting on cancel each other out. It feels a bit of a mess.