Given that the new Labour Government is planning to introduce VAT on independent school fees from January 2025, it is time for action.
Nearly 80% of the electorate didn’t vote for Labour, but the party achieved a huge majority by default. Instead of understanding this, Labour MPs have convinced themselves they have a mandate to do whatever they want.
The Government has decided that a certain group of pensioners will never vote labour so it has scrapped the winter fuel payment while allowing Ed Miliband to pursue policies that will make energy bills even more expensive.
VAT on school fees is something that people can take a stand against and show the Government it cannot just do what it wants. But there has to be a coordinated movement by families of children at independent schools.
Firstly, parents of children currently at independent schools need to write to their local education authority detailing how the Government’s plan has made private school fees unaffordable and that the local authority has to provide a school place for their child or children, bearing in mind that siblings generally attend the same school.
As local authorities start receiving more and more requests, they will have to liaise with the Department for Education on how to accommodate all these new pupils, particularly as some of them will be looking for in-year places outside the normal admissions cycle.
Secondly, they need to write to the independent school their children attend, before the beginning of the Autumn term, saying that if the Government goes ahead with its tax raid they will no longer be able to afford the fees and will be removing their children from the school at the end of the year. (One term’s notice is standard at independent schools.)
As most independent schools struggle to stay afloat, it won’t take many letters of withdrawal before the school bursar is calling on the school’s Board of Governors to either reduce fees or petition the Government to scrap the plan.
The Governors will look at the books and realise a reduction in fees is impossible so will have to contact the Government and explain that with so many families withdrawing, the school will have to close if VAT is introduced.
That will create a massive headache for the Government as there simply aren’t enough places available in the state sector to accommodate even a small number of refugees from the private sector – a problem that will be exacerbated if lots of schools are likely to close.
The Government could decide to take any independent school that is forced to close into the state sector to alleviate the problem, but then its plan to raise revenue via the tax blows up and it ends up costing the Government more than if it had done nothing. In addition, the parents of the pupils already at these schools would enjoy a massive windfall. Hard to see how that will please Labour’s pink-haired apostles.
The Government has assumed that almost everyone who sends their children to an independent school is so well off that a 20% increase in fees is chicken feed and they will carry on paying. Completely wrong, obviously.
So, this is a perfect opportunity give the Government a bloody nose. I just hope there are enough parents willing to put their heads above the parapet and some schools that could get on board to coordinate campaigning activities. I fear the damage this administration will do if they don’t.
Stop Press: There is a parent-led group campaigning against Labour’s tax raid on independent schools called ‘Education Not Taxation’. You can apply to join the Facebook group here.
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