VAT on school fees

SIR – The Labour Party claims it will raise £1.71billion with plans to 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 its claims.

In contrast, the party 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 lose as much as £400million a year by the end of its first term in government. The party has provided no impact assessment that comes close to the rigour of this report.

We 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.

Julie Robinson

CEO, Independent Schools Council

Colin Bell

CEO, Council of British International Schools

John Edward

Director, Scottish Council of Independent Schools

Emma Verrier

CEO, Welsh Independent Schools Council

Rudi Eliott Lockhart

CEO, Independent Schools Association and seven others; see telegraph.co.uk