Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 27th February 2025 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Lord Moynihan]

67: Clause 5, page 5, line 40, at end insert—
“(5A) An institution is not to be considered a private school for the purposes of sub-paragraph (3) if 10% of students are in receipt of bursaries or scholarships for sporting excellence.”

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, in moving Amendment 67 I will also speak to Amendment 69 in my name. Both highlight the importance to this country of the contribution made by the sports facilities of independent schools and the expertise of their coaches, support staff, groundsmen and groundswomen in the independent sector. Both amendments seek to find ways of protecting and promoting opportunities for young people in sport. Both reflect the deeply damaging effect that the combination of the imposition of VAT and rates, and the increase in national insurance contributions, will have on the future success of British sport at all levels.

I declare my interests in sport, which are set out in the register. I will today draw on my time as a former Minister for Sport, chair of the British Olympic Association during London 2012 and, more recently, my three years as chair of governors at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School and now as sports ambassador for that school, which is in support of the outstanding leadership work undertaken by the great Welsh rugby international, Richie Rees, director of the Haberdashers’ Monmouth School sports academy, who pilots the school’s successful sports programme.

In speaking to these amendments, I contend that the Government should encourage state school sport wherever possible and do everything they can to encourage the independent sector to promote opportunities for sport in its schools, and, most importantly, for school sport with the local clubs and communities that use their facilities. The strength that these programmes generate at the base of the pyramid is what, at its apex, delivers our world-class, leading sportsmen and sportswomen. I appreciate that in doing so, I need to justify the importance of sport in schools. That is not difficult. We live in a time of growing obesity. School sport promotes physical health improvements, develops social skills, encourages teamwork and is central to learning how to win and how to manage losing. Sport boosts self-esteem and confidence; it teaches discipline and resilience; it is a major mitigating factor against absenteeism in schools; it promotes optimism, generates pride and positively impacts on academic performance by enhancing focus and concentration.

The phrase “Mens sana in corpore sano” is as relevant today as it was when Juvenal wrote it. Our young people should be encouraged to be not only physically fit and well but mentally sound and balanced, and sport provides the framework for a healthy mind in a healthy body. It teaches resilience, yet the state sector in this country lags close to the bottom of the global league for engagement in sport, adequately trained PE teachers and sports facilities, many of which have aged beyond their life expectancy. This is not a party- political point; a steady decline applies to all Governments over the past 20 years. Local authorities have consistently fallen behind in the provision of, for example, swimming pools, sports facilities and open spaces. Sports is a discretionary line item spend in local authorities and, inevitably, has taken the first hit in budget savings.

I emphasise to the Committee that the independent sector needs government support, not state-imposed business rates as in Clause 5. I draw the Committee’s attention to the contribution that independent schools make to sport. At the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, 33% of Team GB’s medallists attended independent schools. In Tokyo in 2021, 40% of Team GB’s medallists attended independent schools. In Rio in 2016, it was 31% and, in London in 2012, 36%. Yet only 7% of our children go to independent schools, so top Olympians are over four times more likely to have been privately educated than the UK population overall. For me—and, I am sure, for the Minister—the tragedy behind those figures is the reality that there are so many talented young people in our state schools who are capable of representing this country at national and international level, but whose talent in never recognised nor developed, who have no access to sports facilities and good coaching and who miss the opportunities that every country from New Zealand to Poland, from France to Germany and from China to the US provides.

As my friend the Minister—he is a friend in sport—knows, in Burnley, the provision of and opportunities for sports takes young kids off the escalator to crime. It is relevant to the work of every department of state, from prison management to foreign policy, from health to education. Yet a majority of state pupils aged 14 to 16 —over 50%—are now doing only an hour of sport a week in school. The figure is worse still if you take into account the time it takes for many pupils to reach the lesson and get changed. A third of our children cannot swim. British school sport is in crisis.

Sadly, this is not a growth section of the Bill, but another example of where we drive yet another nail into the delivery of sport in independent schools. The reason that is so important is that independent schools have, rightly, had to make sure that their facilities are open to local communities and that the local population can come to use those facilities in their catchment areas. For all the independent schools now faced with the costs of VAT and rates, they will have to cut costs and reduce sports bursaries and scholarships to meet the savings demanded by government.

This will negatively impact on the delivery of sport in the UK. It will have a major impact on our sporting success, not just in terms of medals and national representation, but in the development of sports coaches, pupils and support staff who move out into the community—into the fields of participation—and on the development of excellence in a sector that has seen a steady decline in participation and growing obesity in society. To level the playing field more resources must be invested, both in state schools and though support for the work that independent schools do with communities. The solution is not to jeopardise the success of our young, up-and-coming students who benefit from sport and facilities in the independent sector.

We must reflect on the fact that many children are failing to meet the UK Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for sport and physical activity. It is recommended that children participate in an average of 60 minutes of sport and activity every day, either in school or outside, but 50% of them are missing the target, while 29.6% are not even averaging 30 minutes of activity per day. The total hours of PE taught in English state schools annually has dropped by 41,000 hours since the 2012 Olympics—a decrease of 12%. There has been a 7% reduction in PE teachers in England in the same period.

This Bill will, I contend, worsen the situation since support for sport bursaries, free access for local communities to many independent schools’ sports facilities and the dual use of such facilities will have to be cut in order to balance the books after the imposition of Clause 5 and VAT on school fees. This will impact all independent schools.

Let me give the Minister the well-known example of Millfield School, which delivered 13 out of the 14 Millfield-educated and trained British athletes on Team GB through its means-tested financial support mechanism. The school funded 13 out of 14 of the Millfield-educated and trained British athletes on Team GB for the Paris Olympic Games who brought home between them seven Olympic medals and one Paralympic medal: four gold, three silver and one bronze. All received means-tested financial support from the school during their time at Millfield, but how can that continue? Where will the money come from when the Government themselves predict a significant fall in children going to independent schools and urge those independent schools to make major cuts to their budgets?

It would be fine if, when we looked at the country as a whole, the Government could stand up and say, “Don’t worry, the state sector is doing fantastically well in the provision of school sport”. Sadly, the reality is that that is not the case. As I say, this is not a party-political point. It is a tragedy that more than half of children aged between 16 and 18 are now estimated to be doing no school sport. Swimming is in crisis. Last year, Sport England found that 30% of children cannot swim 25 metres unaided when they leave primary school, a 7% increase on 2017-18. More than 400 public swimming pools have closed since 2010. One-third of primary schools now deliver 10 or fewer swimming lessons to pupils before they leave. The many children who have accessed independent school facilities, at the cost of those independent schools, will now find that those independent schools have to make significant savings. I agree with Sir Keir Starmer, who bemoaned that children were being locked out of emulating their heroes last year due to the lack of PE provision. The dual use of independent schools’ sports facilities is critical to addressing that issue but it is under threat, which will make matters worse.

People who are not physically active as children are, in turn, far less likely to be active in later life. The crisis in school sport is contributing to the long-term obesity epidemic. By the age of 11, 22% of children are already obese, which increases to 26% among adults. This measure, coupled with VAT on school fees, will make the outcome worse. Inactive children become inactive adults, who then become inactive parents. We need to reset children’s lifestyles if we want to change the nation’s health. If we did that, we would save far more than the VAT, rates and national insurance contributions proposed by the Government. This is not a problem that has emerged over the past six months; I fully recognise that. The London Olympic Games saw an unprecedented urban regeneration legacy in the East End of London and a great Paralympic Games, but it saw little to no sports legacy, which I have consistently argued for both inside and outside the House.

These two amendments seek to stem the tide of dual use in independent schools and to move away from that tide going out by increasingly looking to a solution that ensures that we can protect and support school sport in independent schools, especially where it reaches out to local communities, local clubs and state schools, which come in to use those facilities. The Government are telling all independent schools to cut costs, make savings, and put up fees to balance their books. Would the Minister be prepared either to sit down and think through finding a way of supporting British sporting success by accepting one of these amendments or to take them away to see what can be done to support British success in sport in independent schools and, through dual use, in communities that desperately need to rely on such schools for the use of their facilities in future and that reach out, as many independent schools have had to do, to the benefit of young children in the community who simply do not have access to sports facilities except in independent schools?

Dual use has been a magnificent development in independent schools over the past 10 to 20 years. It is now firmly embedded, but it is under threat because it is so costly for schools to continue to have that dual use, free in many cases. I was recently at Tonbridge School and noticed that it has a new running track put down every four years. The reason it is every four years is because it has double the number of people using it because the local community come to use it. Now, it says it may have to make savings by resetting it every eight years and reducing the number of people who use it.

If we took one of these amendments or worked hard together to resolve examples like this, it would be to the benefit of sport in this country, in the independent sector and, just as importantly, in the state sector as well. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

It has been a pleasure to have an exchange with the noble Lord, Lord Khan. I congratulate him on his love of and belief in cricket. I must say that one of the great heroes of Burnley, the noble Lord’s hometown, is Jimmy Anderson, and he, at his best, would have been very useful yesterday, when we were getting beaten by Afghanistan. He was no doubt inspired by Jimmy Anderson. Just for the record, the Minister very kindly mentioned the silver medal I got, but, although I may be looking old, I actually got it eight years later—not in Munich but in Moscow. It takes its toll, this place, after 20 years. I wish him well with Burnley’s promotion prospects. He is sitting alongside a very fine, assiduous Whip, who has heard quite a lot of football in the last couple of months. I wish him well but please, go easy on Leeds, because that is my club and we want to make sure that we get there first.

On a serious note, I appreciate the Minister’s comments about the importance of public benefit and charitable status and that he is seeking to continue to expect that to be delivered by independent schools. It is incredibly difficult for independent schools that now face up to 25%, if you put together the VAT, the cost of national insurance and the impact of this Bill. It would be difficult if you were to slap 25% on the costs of any business. Many parents find it exceptionally difficult to pay the fees to go to an independent school and get the benefit. It is difficult for the Government to turn around and say, “We are going to increase those fees by 25% by state diktat”, and still expect schools to do everything they are doing with the local community, at their cost. So, I am grateful to the Minister for saying that he will have a conversation, take this away and just see if there is something we can do, particularly where independent schools work effectively with local communities and provide opportunities for local children to use the facilities and often benefit from coaching expertise. We need to continue to support that and it is very difficult to see how we can support it at the moment, when around 25%, on average, will be lost to the balance sheet of those schools.

I look forward to meeting the Minister on that subject but, for the time being, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 67 withdrawn.