Independent Schools: VAT Exemption

Lord Kempsell Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kempsell (Con)]

My Lords, in the debate on the gracious Speech before the Summer Recess, I suggested that the Government’s proposal to impose VAT on school fees would ultimately narrow opportunities across the country rather than widen them. What I did not predict is that the Government would make such a quick success of wreaking havoc on the lives of children who are now living with uncertainty about the implementation of this measure.

I want to focus on one such group in particular: Armed Forces families. More than 4,000 military children receive support with school fees via the continuity of education allowance. From Cyprus to Sierra Leone, from South Sudan to the Falklands, the operational demands on these families have a huge impact on their education. Army families, for example, are highly mobile; they are asked to move every two years on average. They receive support so that their children can have continuity by attending boarding schools, minimising the need to constantly switch schools. That funding is capped and there is also a parental contribution, so these are not fully funded places. Of course, these families are far from wealthy, but they are highly concerned that they will be priced out by the Government’s plan.

Just last night, I received an email from a service family who described their tears of worry at the Government’s policy. It says: “My child should have stability in being able to stay in the English education system at the same school, but the Labour Government apparently wish to break their heart and soul”. I must warn Ministers that their plan is already doing damage to morale among service personnel, and that is not acceptable.

Worryingly, nearly 70% of Army families surveyed say that if there is no exemption or mitigation to cover the costs of the VAT, they would have to consider leaving the Armed Forces. With the global security situation as it is and the current operational tempo, this surely cannot be what the Government intend by this policy.

I also highlight the many self-funding Armed Forces families who do not claim the continuity of education allowance, who rely on these schools to make their role feasible—on overseas deployments there is obviously no access to alternative state provision. I asked a Written Question on this matter over the summer break and no detail has been forthcoming from Ministers. I wrote to the Treasury but have not received a reply. The school year has already started and the Government are leaving Armed Forces families in the dark. I join calls from across your Lordships’ House today for Ministers to clarify the situation for Armed Forces families. They should commit to exempt all Armed Forces families, whether in receipt of support or not, from their plan to place VAT on school fees. If the Government are not willing to do so, they should design a rebate or mitigation that means that Armed Forces families are not forced to consider whether they can continue in service. It is not sufficient, as the Treasury says in its technical notes, to wait for the spending review to evaluate the impact on military families as this is having an impact now.

As my noble friend Lord Roberts so aptly said, private school VAT will become a case study in the unintended consequences of ill-thought-out policy. Indeed, it has already been scrapped in other countries, the unintended consequences having been noted in Greece, where the policy was withdrawn. It will flood the state sector, cause successful schools to close and have a negative impact on communities. I fear that most of all it will clobber Armed Forces families, who are doing nothing other than serving their country and from whom I have had a huge number of representations.

I fear that behind this policy lies the worst kind of political grandstanding. It does not reach the standard even of sixth-form politics but feels like 1970s-style divisive class politics reheated for today, and leaves a bitter taste.