|
Following a busy weekend during which Labour's policy to charge VAT on schools fees has garnered many column inches, IAPS CEO Christopher King has joined the sector's other associations, led by ISC, in signing a letter to the newspapers. This has been published today in the Daily Telegraph, as follows:
The Labour Party claims that it will raise £1.71 billion with its plans to end tax breaks for independent schools and levy a tax on parents by adding VAT to school fees. We say: show us your working. We are yet to see any robust analysis that lends credence to Labour’s claims.
In contrast, Labour is happy to attack the independent Baines Cutler report, compiled by leading experts in the financial aspects of independent schools. It is the only research into the subject that is based on representative surveys of many thousands of independent school parents. The report found that far from raising money, Labour could end up losing up to £400m a year by the end of its first Parliamentary term in government. Labour has provided no impact assessment that comes close to the rigour of this report.
We, like everyone else, want to see a well-funded state education system. But the path the Labour Party is mapping out would fail to raise the money our colleagues in the state sector need and deserve, while disrupting the lives and education of thousands of children whose parents work hard to fund the education they have chosen.
|
