Headmaster of 125-year-old prep school reveals Labour has cost them £2m

Telegraph

9 hours ago

The headmaster of one of Britain's most prestigious private schools has revealed how Labour's tax rises have already cost them £2m.
Malvern College, which counts C.S. Lewis and Jeremy Paxman among its alumni, this week announced it was being forced to move its prep school, The Downs Malvern, from its 125-year-old site.
The Victorian building was where poet W.H. Auden wrote some of his poems while teaching at the school between 1932 and 1935. Pupils will now be moved to the same building as the seniors.
Keith Metcalfe, the headmaster, who looks after the whole family of schools, said the introduction of VAT on fees in January has cost around £1m as a result of pupils leaving and the increased expense of providing bursaries.
These losses were compounded in April by a rise in National Insurance and the loss of business rates relief which the school estimated has cost a further £1m.
Mr Metcalfe told The Telegraph: 'We are seeing schools close and hearing others that are cutting back, and it's sad to see.
'Education is one of Britain's greatest exports. There's a certain amount of soft power in high quality education that goes around the world.
'You can see that in the growth of international schools where they are following a British curriculum teaching them about the values of nationhood, politics, democracy and human rights. I think it's such a powerful tool for us as a nation and it's got to be seen in the round.'
Malvern College, founded in 1865, will increase its fees in September to £59,295 a year for boarders and £40,245 for day pupils – a rise of 20pc compared with a year previous.
The Downs Malvern, which was founded in 1900, charges up to £25,000 per year for day pupils and £33,000 for boarders.
Malvern decided to pass on the net VAT uplift directly to parents meaning the £1m loss, which accounts for the senior and prep schools, is solely down to pupils leaving and the increase in additional bursary and hardship funding.
Rob Breare, chief operating officer, said: 'One of the frustrations in the sector is that people have looked at each cost in isolation rather than to say it is a perfect storm of them together that makes it very difficult to mitigate against.
'The three big building blocks are VAT, the loss of business rates relief and then the combination of National Insurance and national minimum wage increasing.'
Parents of the prep school were told on Wednesday evening about the school's move, which is due to take place by the end of the 2026-27 academic year.
Malvern will renovate old boarding houses for the prep school to move into, using the sale of its existing building to help fund the move.
And while this will go some way to offsetting the outlay, Malvern said it is taking a calculated risk by choosing to invest heavily at a time when other prep schools are closing.
Mr Metcalfe said: 'It's a strategic decision based on the fact that down the line it's going to become harder and harder [for prep schools to attract pupils].
'The last few years have been pretty tough on any school, but particularly those smaller, more rural schools where the market is changing.
'You can see in our region prep schools have got smaller. There have been examples of some closing. This is therefore an opportunity for us, rather than cutting back costs to save money, we can invest in the school by bringing them over here and we all benefit from that.'
More than 25 schools have announced their closure since January when the Government began imposing a 20pc VAT levy on school fees – a large proportion of which have been prep schools.
These schools are less able to take advantage of reclaiming VAT on capital expenditure and tend to be smaller than secondary schools.
Last week, two prep schools in London announced their closure, blaming the VAT levy for a loss in pupil numbers.