Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Debate between Baroness Pinnock and Lord Black of Brentwood

Committee stage
Thursday 27th February 2025 Grand Committee

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, Amendment 70 is in the names of my noble friends Lord Storey and Lord Shipley, neither of whom is able to be here. They estimated that this group of amendments, being very close to the end of Committee, would be debated in the Committee day allocated for next week.

The purpose of Amendment 70 is straightforward: it would require the Government to assess the impact of Clause 5 on state schools. It is reported that independent schools are already losing about 10,000 pupils, who are withdrawing from private education, and that is before the implementation of VAT, the decision on which was made earlier this year. If that is the case, the removal of that number of pupils will cost the state sector £92 million, because those young people will now have state-funded places in the state sector.

Two questions then arise. One concerns the additional cost, which is borne by the Government. The second concerns the fact that there are often clusters of private schools in certain locations. There is a clutch of private schools in Newcastle upon Tyne. There are two private schools in Bradford and two private schools in Wakefield—I am moving south. When you get to the south of England and London, there is obviously a large number of private schools. If children are withdrawn from them due to the rising fees, there will be an impact not just on the cost of their education but on finding appropriate school places in their localities. That is the first impact.

The second impact, which is of particular concern, is on children with special educational needs and disabilities. This measure will put pressure on the state sector, where, as we already know and as I said earlier, SEND is in crisis. It could be very difficult indeed for those young people to find places where there is the proper support to meet their needs. The additional funding and, in the case of young people with particular disabilities having to be accommodated in the state sector, the additional facilities needed to support them could unduly add another cost to the state sector. This is not being considered by an impact assessment on the provisions in this Bill; hence the need for an impact assessment, as set out by my noble friends, so that the Government can demonstrate that they have actually considered what the overall impact will be.

I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say on that score and I beg to move.

[Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)]

My Lords, I support all the amendments in this group but I shall speak in particular to Amendment 72A in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Lexden. I refer to my earlier declaration of interests.

The Minister has been very emollient and courteous in batting off all our amendments today; I thank him for the way he has dealt with them. Although he and his colleagues throughout government like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend otherwise—as we have seen, I am afraid—the impact of their onslaught on independent education, of which the removal of business rates is just one strand, will have profound ramifications for not just the sector and the children educated in it but a wide range of public policy areas. This is a bit like that game of Jenga, which we have probably all played, where blocks of wood are taken out until a point comes where the removal of one of them causes the whole edifice to crumble. That is what is in danger of happening here, with the sustained attack on independent education in danger of causing policy failure in a wide range of other areas.

Consider quite how far-reaching are the consequences of this policy underpinned by Clause 5. It impacts on public health and the care of vulnerable children; on the future of music, drama and the arts in the UK, which we have talked about today; on military families and defence personnel; on state schools, whose class sizes will increase; on multiculturalism and respect for different faiths; on jobs, export and investment; on local communities, volunteer groups, charities and so on, which depend on partnership with independent schools; on sport, as we have heard so eloquently described; and on soft power and Britain’s standing abroad. As a result of this web of different aspects that will be affected and will impinge on so many different aspects of government policy, it is vital there is an impact assessment of the consequences of Clause 5 taken in conjunction with the Government’s other policy changes. That is what my Amendment 72A provides for.

Apart from everything else, Parliament has a continuing responsibility to scrutinise the Government’s actions in this area. That is what this House, in particular, is here for. To do that, we need not just the data provided by the industry’s own excellent associations but data from across government and a detailed assessment of its implications. Given the profound changes to policy that Clause 5 exemplifies, ripping up five decades of orthodoxy about parental choice, such an impact assessment is the very least we should expect to allow us to fulfil our responsibilities and make clear to the public what its consequences are.