The VAT raid on private schools continues to unravel
At least 10,000 pupils have been forced to move out of independent schools and have thus become a burden on the Exchequer. Some 50 schools have already closed and more will surely follow. The state sector has yet to see the much-vaunted 6,000 extra teachers.
One of the perverse effects of this experiment in class warfare has been to penalise poorer families. The genuinely affluent are able to pay their fees years in advance. As The Telegraph today reveals, many thousands have done just that, potentially avoiding the VAT that was imposed from this January onwards. The top 50 independent schools held £515m in advance fees last year, up from £121m in 2023. This may have cost the Treasury over £100m in VAT it would otherwise have received.
But parents with more modest means cannot afford to do this. Many have been forced to take their children out of private education, thereby turning schools that had catered for a broad range of backgrounds into a closer approximation of what the Left stigmatise them for being: the preserve of the wealthy.
As if this mean-spirited fiscal assault on education had not done enough damage, Lord Kinnock has now proposed to extend the principle to health as well. The former Labour leader – now enjoying a comfortable retirement thanks to years on the Brussels gravy train – is all for charging VAT on private health care too.
Those who remember the days when Margaret Thatcher used to bat such daft Labour proposals back across the Despatch Box will doubtless recall that fees for private health were then tax-deductible. Now, there is an idea that the Conservatives should seriously consider reviving.
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