Kerry McCarthy
Main Page: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)Department Debates - View all Kerry McCarthy's debates with the HM Treasury
Sixth-Form Colleges (VAT)
Kerry McCarthy Excerpts(11 years ago)
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Lisa Nandy
Absolutely. The issue of the level playing field has come up time and time again. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about courses and the staff that sixth-form colleges can use. I am concerned that that loss of staff has also meant a loss of expertise. If the sector is hit by anything else, we will struggle to get it back.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
This issue has certainly been raised with me by St Brendan’s sixth-form college in my constituency. Another issue is the fact that the VAT situation does not allow adults to use the building for more than a short amount of time. Otherwise, that incurs VAT as well. The academy schools in my constituency lobbied me about that in the past, but thankfully we managed to overturn the situation for them. In terms of community engagement, does she agree that not being able to use the buildings in the evenings is a wasted opportunity?
Lisa Nandy
Absolutely. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. There is also a wider point: sixth-form colleges benefit not only their students but the wider community. I know from my constituency that they are institutions rooted in the wider community, and they play a much more beneficial role across our town than it would appear from looking only at their core activities.
It is galling for my sixth-form colleges that while they are struggling with the impacts of the cumulative funding cuts, the Government are creating new free schools and academy sixth forms, with which they are required to compete but which are VAT exempt. Many people contacted me before the debate to point out, rightly, that a market does not function if competition is not fair. Many new free school sixth forms are struggling to fill their places, yet those places are funded too. Ministers are paying for places in new institutions to lie empty while successful and established sixth-form colleges are struggling to afford the students that they have.