A body representing private schools is launching legal action against the government’s decision to levy VAT on their fees.
Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said the decision “has not been taken lightly and has been under consideration for many months”.
At yesterday’s budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed plans to go ahead with the introduction of VAT on private school fees from January 2025.
The ISC, an umbrella body for seven associations representing such schools, said its case would centre around alleged breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Human Rights Act 1998.
Robinson said: “At all points throughout this debate, our focus has been on the children in our schools who would be negatively impacted by this policy.
“This focus remains and we will be defending the rights of families who have chosen independent education, but who may no longer be able to do so as a direct result of an unprecedented education tax.”
State schools expected to take 35k more pupils
A government response to its own technical consultation on the proposals estimated that in the long-term, 37,000 pupils will leave or never enter the UK private school sector as a result of the VAT policy. This is around six per cent of the current private school population.
Government predicts that 35,000 pupils will move into UK state schools “in the long term steady state” following the VAT policy taking effect in January.
The number expected to move before the end of the 2024-25 academic year “is around 3,000”.
Councils funding placements in these schools for pupils with SEND will be compensated for the VAT they are charged.
The ISC said it would work with human rights barrister Lord David Pannick, Paul Luckhurst from Blackstone Chambers and legal firm Kingsley Napley.
It will be pursuing the case in the High Court, with a pre-action letter to be issued to the government shortly.
It is separate to other litigation by other organisations, but the ISC said it would be “liaising with these other third-party groups”.
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
Let’s hope this wins. The fall out for ALL schools and ALL children will be huge, if not. The government can not discriminate against a 7% minority based on educational choice because of blind ideology. Ignorance of how this will effect lower income families on bursaries, children with SEND, and other children who will be removed from their schools mid-year because of the rush to implement this so as not to witness the impact. Yet, they reduce tax on alcohol, give a huge lead in time for tax on tapes and don’t even consider taxing gambling. And this is the best way to fund improvements to education? By forcing children to take up places they are already subsidising but not using?
Sounds like they want to funnel more kids into the public schools ….I wonder why?
Rich get really annoyed the TAX impact hits them and not the poor, is what I hear.
Not all independent school parents are rolling in money, and most schools are not wealthy institutions charging 40K+ per year. Some families make financial sacrifices to educate their children privately: limited holiday opportunites, no second car, children have to save up and buy their own phones and electronic items (contrary to popular belief), clothes (in and out of school) are second hand rather than new.
Remember, all the parents choosing private schooling are already paying for a mainstream school place that they are not using, through their normal taxes , which means there should currently be more money available for pupils of maintained schools. The estimated 35,000 pupils are going to arrive in schools and need teachers and classrooms and other resources, but the money for additional pupils from the government/Local Authority does not arrive in school budgets until around 18 months later. Who’s going to pay for it all in the short term? Or do all children in maintained schools end up penalised because of a populist, blinkered decision by the government?
All parents of children currently schooled in the private sector should apply for a state school place. It will wreck havoc and if nothing else may cause the government to hit the pause button and hopefully see some sense.