Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Relief

Aphra Brandreth Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alison Taylor (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) for his introduction to the petition today.

I have considerable sympathy with the petitioners. I know that families make the choice to send their children to a private school for many reasons. I have been contacted by constituents who felt that their children’s needs were not being met in local state schools, and that they had no choice but to go private. I know, too, that families make sacrifices to be able to afford fees. I have been contacted by families who send their children to St Columba’s junior and senior schools in Kilmacolm in the neighbouring constituency to mine. I know that the new VAT measures, combined with other costs, have led to a 20% increase in school fees from the beginning of 2025, and that is difficult for the families and for the school. I also appreciate that for some families, and not just the 50 or so signatories to the petition in my constituency, the speed with which this measure was introduced has been difficult.

I am encouraged by the extent to which schools have been able to offset VAT on capital charges against input VAT, to make the effective increase lower than the 20%, but it is clear that other pressures have made the increase in school fees necessary. I am aware that school fees have been increasing year on year in any event, so not all of the increase is down to VAT.

Ultimately, government is about making choices. This Government were elected on a clear manifesto commitment to introduce VAT on private school fees. The express intention was to use the revenue raised to improve funding for schools in the state sector. In England, the Government have been setting out plans for school rebuilding, introducing breakfast clubs, supporting school attendance and recruiting new teachers, all of which will help to build up the state sector and give pupils in England the best chance of a foundational education that has the capacity fundamentally to change the trajectory of children’s lives.

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

The UK is now the only country in Europe to tax education. Does the hon. Member recognise that this policy is about Labour’s ideology and not about improving education for all children across our country, irrespective of whether they are in the state sector or the independent sector?

[Alison Taylor]

I simply do not agree. I refer to my earlier point that this policy was in Labour’s manifesto in 2017, 2019 and 2024. It is a long-standing policy of the Labour party.

Agricultural Property Relief

Aphra Brandreth Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is making a very passionate speech on an extremely important topic. She will know that my constituency of Chester South and Eddisbury borders Wales, and that there are many family farmers in north Wales who are deeply concerned about the consequences of this policy. Does she agree that it will impact not only farmers but the wider agricultural-industrial community, including businesses in my constituency that work alongside Welsh farmers in north Wales, such as Meadow Foods in Chester?

[Ann Davies]

I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady, and perhaps I should mention that Meadow Foods is the company that takes the milk from our farm—so we are that close to one another. I will say more about that issue as I move through my speech.

The lack of any data on the particular effects of the changes in Wales is a genuine problem. The available data, especially the data used by the Treasury, is a combination of Wales data and England data, or is UK-level data; it is not Welsh data. That is why organisations in Wales have to make their own calculations about the impact in Wales. The Country Land and Business Association calculated that an average 250-acre dairy farm in Wales could be hit by a £119,000 inheritance tax charge, while the average 250-acre livestock farm would expect an £85,000 charge. However, those figures do not include the asset value of diversified enterprise, meaning, of course, that they could be higher still.

It is crucial that farmers, policymakers and other stakeholders in Wales have accurate data to understand the real impacts of the changes within the specific context of Wales. The FUW called for the Wales-specific impact assessment to be modelled with working farms only, as the Welsh Government—the Welsh Labour Government—did during their 2023 sustainable farming scheme analysis. Today, I reiterate the call for the Government to implement that assessment, as my Plaid Cymru colleagues and I have continuously called for since October. The arguments have not changed.

There is evidence that the changes will not make even an iota of difference to the Treasury. In fact, modelling from the Confederation of British Industry Economics found that the changes to BPR will actually cost the Exchequer £1.25 billion between 2026-27 and 2029-30. It is unclear how they work towards Labour’s mission of growth, as industry organisations have come across numerous cases of farms and businesses delaying investments, putting orders on hold and preparing to reduce staffing. Let us not forget that each £1 a farmer spends generates another £9 in that community. What other rural industry does that?

Undermining local farmers and agricultural producers risks missing out on crucial opportunities to shorten our supply chains and to improve our food resilience. We currently produce 60% of the food that we need here in the UK and, when our food imports already outnumber exports by £33.2 billion, causing a reduction in the food that we produce will only increase our vulnerability to factors outside our control—the damaging consequences of which we have already felt in the energy market.

There is also a consensus that the changes do not address the initial concerns about non-farmers investing in land to avoid inheritance tax. For those with new money from capital gains made in the non-agricultural economy, there will continue to be a huge incentive to buy agricultural land, given that the value of that land above the announced threshold will face inheritance tax charges at half the rate of other assets.

Oral Answers to Questions

Aphra Brandreth Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Western]

My hon. Friend will know that we face a significant challenge, with fraud and error costing the Department almost £10 billion a year. It is right that we look to utilise all available tools to tackle it. However, I understand her concerns, although I would remind her that the final decision on whether someone receives a welfare payment is always made by a human. That is the most robust safeguard that we can have in place—although of course it sits alongside a broader suite.

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

My inspirational constituent, Bells Lewers, has terminal bowel cancer. When she was first undergoing treatment, she was initially turned down for personal independence payment, despite the significant impact on her ability to work and carry out basic daily activities. Has the Minister considered incorporating clinical diagnosis alongside function in eligibility assessments, and will he meet Bells to discuss the assessment process?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

We do keep the asylum process under review, but I would be happy to look at the details of this particular case and perhaps meet the hon. Lady and her constituent, if that would be helpful.