The leader of the group representing the most prestigious independent schools in the UK says the government’s controversial tax raid on them has failed to fund new teachers.
Philip Britton, current chair of the Heads’ Conference (HMC), said there had been ‘no wider benefit’ to state education despite Labour promises that money raised from levying VAT on fees would fund 6,500 new teachers.
Meanwhile since the policy was introduced in January, 81 private schools have closed, many citing VAT as a contributory factor, with more closures expected and around 25,000 pupils have been forced out of the sector by rising costs, the Independent Schools Council estimates.
Calling for a ‘proper impact assessment on young people and local economies’, the chair of the HMC, the oldest Heads’ association in the world, which has over 400 members in the UK and internationally including Eton, Harrow and Winchester, said:
‘Millions have been removed from the local economy in my area alone through VAT payments. What real impact on state school funding locally has that added?’
Mr Britton also slammed the government for ‘shape shifting’ about where the money it raises from the new tax, which levies 20 per cent onto fees, is going to.
He said: ‘The purpose of VAT in the election was unequivocally to employ 6,500 more teachers for the state sector. This purpose has shape shifted.
‘Government can again do as it wishes and taxes are not hypothecated but we can also note that we have noticed the shifting sands.’
Philip Britton, current chair of the Heads’ Conference (HMC), said there had been ‘no wider benefit’ to state education despite Labour promises that money raised from levying VAT on fees would fund 6,500 new teachers
His comments came as it was revealed the government has delayed publishing its recruitment plan for the new teachers which it had pledged to detail this month.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said this week that instead of recruiting teachers, there were now ‘400 fewer’.
And Mr Britton also accused the government of not telling the truth about the new tax.
He said Labour was still perpetuating the myth that they had removed ‘tax breaks’ from schools instead of admitting they had just slapped a new tax on them.
‘It is not alright to say things that are not true,’ said Mr Britton, an MBE for services to Physics education, who has headed Bolton School, one of the oldest schools in the country, for 17 years.
‘They are not tax breaks. The High Court judgment (on the new tax) earlier this year made this very clear.
‘They are new taxes which were a manifesto commitment. Government should just own that – let us not have the language of tax breaks any more.’
Criticising the government for its continued trite responses to challenges on the policy, he said: ‘We are better at debating as a society than these carefully crafted “spokesperson” statements that we are expected just to read and believe.
‘The latest version was – a government spokesperson said: ‘Ending tax breaks for private schools will raise £1.8billion a year by 2029-30 to help fund public services, including supporting the 94 per cent of children in state schools to achieve and thrive’.
‘Honest, open and straightforward talk is needed about the detriment this policy has brought and also, at present, lack of benefit to wider education.
Latest figures show 41,200 left the teaching profession in 2023/4, around ten per cent of the workforce
‘Too much is written that some figures are not recognised or not accepted but there is a truth there somewhere: a truth that some pupils have been uprooted, teachers and support staff left without work and the economies of local infrastructure weakened.’
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said yesterday that it was ‘no surprise’ Labour had delayed their plan on ‘how to deliver their key manifesto pledge when there are 400 fewer teachers since Labour came into office’.
‘Schools have faced a litany of broken promises from the Labour Party. They claimed taxing education would fund 6,500 new teachers, but the PM himself said this was going towards housing illegal migrants,’ she said.
Meanwhile latest figures show 41,200 left the teaching profession in 2023/4, around ten per cent of the workforce.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We are delivering on our promise to recruit 6,500 teachers with over 2,300 more secondary and special schoolteachers in classrooms this year, as well as 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the profession – one of the lowest leave rates since 2010.’
