Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Relief
Debate between Richard Tice and John Lamont(3 weeks, 5 days ago)
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John Lamont
I would be amazed if the voters of Edinburgh endorse the policy in the way that the hon. Gentleman suggests. He should put that suggestion to some of the Facebook groups that support the directly affected Edinburgh parents—some of his constituents are directly affected by the policy—and see how many of their members say they support the policy. I suspect that very few will. If he paid any attention to those groups, he would know how much animosity there is towards the policy among parents in Edinburgh.
Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness) (Reform)
Does the hon. Member agree that it is quite possible that this ludicrous policy raises the square root of net zero once we knock off possibly 100,000 children not going to independent schools, the recovery of input costs from schools, the closure of schools and the reduction in bursaries because the schools cannot afford to give them?
John Lamont
The hon. Member is absolutely right, and that leads me neatly to my next point. Let us look at what else the Labour Government have claimed. They said:
“Ending tax breaks for private schools was a tough but necessary decision that will secure additional funding to help deliver the Government’s commitments relating to education and young people.”
That supposed extra funding is far from guaranteed. The policy is unlikely to raise what has been stated, and it may well incur far greater costs to taxpayers than anticipated.
Let me state it plainly: nothing about this decision was necessary. This did not need to happen now or in this manner. At the very least, it could have been considered in detail, with all the repercussions weighed up. The Government estimate that in the long term, 37,000 pupils will leave or never enter the UK private school sector as a result of the VAT charge. That number may also prove to be nonsense; if it is, the Government’s entire basis for doing this will fall apart. If the number is higher, the cost to the public finances will be higher and less revenue will be raised. That is a potentially vicious double whammy for the Treasury, inflicted entirely by Labour’s own design.