Is VAT on fees really to blame for private school closures?
More from this theme Recent articles A deluge of media fury has blamed recent private school closures on the government’s decision to impose VAT on school fees. One commentator even claimed the move was “akin to what we have seen from Vladimir Putin”. But a Schools Week investigation has found that fewer than a dozen schools have publicly blamed the new VAT policy for their closure. So how accurate are the headlines? Schools Week investigates … What Labour did In the run-up to the general election, Labour published a manifesto proposal to remove the VAT exemption that applies to private school fees. Once in power, the government confirmed that private school fees would be charged VAT at the standard 20 per cent rate from this month. Labour estimated the policy would raise £460 million in 2024-25, rising to £1.5 billion the following year, to be spent on public services including state schools. It forecast that imposing VAT on fees will result in 37,000 pupils leaving the private sector, about 6% of the current private school population. Since the announcement, blowback …
