Labour’s plan to sting independent schools would prove counterproductive
SIR – The Labour Party is threatening, if it wins power, to remove the charitable status of independent schools, forcing them to charge VAT on fees (Letters, December 2).
This is projected to drive at least 200 such schools to the wall. Labour has already taken a sledgehammer to Britain’s world-class educational standards by abolishing grammar schools in the name of “fairness”. Now it seeks to lower those standards even further by attacking a model that clearly works.
Labour chooses to ignore the fact that parents of private school pupils already pay twice for education, once for fees and once in taxes.
Tim Dimond-brown
London SW13
SIR – I actually agree with Sir Keir Starmer. Independent schools are businesses, not charities, and should not have the VAT exemption.
A fairer approach would be to allow any British taxpayer to claim personal tax relief on school fees at their highest applicable marginal rate to compensate them for reducing the burden on the over-stretched state system. This would provide targeted help, while excluding those who are taxed outside the country or are non-doms.
Paul Archer
Derby
SIR – Michael Robinson (Letters, December 1) questions how much charitable work private schools actually undertake.
The answer is more than he realises. It isn’t just about opening up facilities to the community or giving out food parcels. These schools also do something even more valuable.
My old school, Oldham Hulme Grammar School, is one of the many independent schools in provincial towns that give bursaries to poorer pupils. Oldham is one of the most ethnically diverse towns in Britain. It has some of the worst deprivation in the country, as well as higher levels of child poverty. A large proportion of entrants get bursaries so that the underprivileged get the opportunity to change their futures.
I can vouch for that because I’m one of the boys who had a bursary, and it changed my future for the better. Andrew Holgate
Wilmslow, Cheshire