Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions

Al Pinkerton Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Caroline. I thank the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) for securing this important debate. In my constituency, there are six small independent schools, two of which are dedicated to special educational needs, serving a total of 820 students. I have heard from each of those schools, from families of current students and from teachers in the state sector about the potential impacts of imposing VAT on private education provision.

I want to highlight two issues that relate particularly to the educational ecosystem of Surrey Heath, but which will, I think, also resonate widely across the country. The first is special educational needs. Of the 820 students in private schools across Surrey Heath, 230 have special educational needs of varying degrees of severity, and, of those, 138 are not in possession of an EHCP. That figure indicates the disproportionate service and choice that small, local private schools provide children and families with special educational needs.

For those children and families, private provision is more than just an alternative to the state sector; it is a crucial lifeline for children who struggle in mainstream education or who cannot secure one of the limited places in a special educational needs school provided by Surrey county council. Parents and headteachers have made it clear to me that families with children with special educational needs already face significant financial strains, and an additional 20% will be the tipping point that forces already stretched families to withdraw their children and turn again to an overstretched county-run system.

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

The state schools in my constituency are already bursting at the seams, and we have hundreds of children who are outside of education, many of whom are unable to receive homeschooling. There are six private schools in my constituency, educating more than 1,000 children. The lowest fees start at £1,800, with the highest at around £3,300. We are talking about working-class, low-income families with children who have special educational needs. If enacted, the policy would be hugely damaging to those families’ financial situation and their children’s education. I strongly urge the Government to assess the impact of that and put in place protection mechanisms for such schools.

[Dr Pinkerton]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman entirely.

My second point relates to military families. As we have close ties to Sandhurst, Pirbright and nearby Aldershot, around 10% of pupils in my constituency come from military families. Those families already report that they are struggling with fees because of the increasing gap between the continuity of education allowance paid by the Ministry of Defence and the rising cost of private education, and adding 20% would widen that gap further still. Many families would reach their tipping point and be forced to withdraw their children from their current schools, with all the attendant risks.

[Helen Maguire]

My hon. Friend raises an excellent point. As the Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson and as a veteran myself, I can only reiterate the importance of a stable environment for the children of armed forces personnel. Does he agree that the Government must continue to support a stable environment for our armed forces personnel as they continue to protect our country, both at home and overseas, and that the Government must explain exactly how they will achieve that?

[Dr Pinkerton]

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. I know that residents in my constituency face having to leave the armed forces because of the disruption that the added VAT would cause and the difficulty of procuring educational offerings. I ask the Government to think again about this policy—this education tax—and its timing and application, especially now, when SEND provision is already broken in counties such as Surrey and requires fundamental reform; when local independent schools are already struggling, having borne many of the costs associated with inflation, lived through the pandemic and endured many of the costs attached to that; and when state schools are already struggling to provide the education that they want to provide.