Until January 2025, all schools were exempt from VAT as they were considered eligible bodies under the Education Act. According to the VAT Act 1994, the provision of education or vocational training by an eligible body, along with closely related goods and services, was VAT-exempt. This included fees for independent schools. Furthermore, about 50% of private and independent schools qualified for charitable status, making them eligible for certain reliefs from business rates.
The new Labour Government's act to introduce a school tax, with 20 per cent VAT being added to private school fees, and remove reliefs for schools deemed charitable organisations is an ill-thought-out policy. When the policy announcement was made, Richard feared that hard-working parents would not be able to fund the higher fees and thousands of children could potentially need a space at their local state school. State school class sizes looked likely to increase, and the policy could affect a large proportion of children with special education needs. The generous bursary system offered by many independent schools to so many disadvantaged children may also decline.
Richard was opposed to the measures and worked with local schools – public and state – and with the local Council to mitigate the worst consequences.
Since the 2024 general election, Richard met with the headteachers of local private schools and the Head of the Harpur Trust to discuss the impact of the policy. He also met with the Chief Officer for Education at Bedford Borough Council to better understand the knock-on effects of the policy on local state school provision.
In addition to being a mean, anti-aspiration measure, Labour’s policy has a potential serious practical impact on local state schools. In Bedford Borough alone we cannot take any additional students in secondary schools as the schools we already have are currently oversubscribed. Put simply, there are no secondary school places available.
To try and clarify the position with regard to fees, Richard tabled a Written Parliamentary Question with the Government: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament. The Government has since confirmed in a statement to Parliament on 29 July 2024 that VAT would apply from January 2025.
In early August 2024, Richard and neighbouring MP in Mid Bedfordshire, Blake Stephenson, wrote to the Education Secretary asking her to re-think this policy. The letter can be read here and in October 2024, Richard again wrote to the Education Secretary to raise Bedford Borough Council's concerns about the proposed removal of independent schools from current VAT exemptions for educational organisations. The reply can be read here.
In the Budget in October 2024, the Government confirmed that it would be applying VAT on private school fees from January 2025 and that business rate relief would be removed in April 2025. Richard comments can be read here.
Furthermore, the government put on hold all planned free school projects while they were being reviewed, which included a much-needed new secondary school in Bedford Borough. Richard and Blake wrote to the Secretary of State in December 2024, impressing the need for this new school, with demand for secondary school places now compounded by the consequences of VAT on school fees given that the Borough has a high number of fee-paying schools.
Hard-working families should have the choice of where to send their children to school. The Conservative Party has said it would reverse Labour's decision to impose VAT on private school fees if they were in government.
Labour’s ideological crusade against independent schools continues to backfire, with thousands of pupils forced to leave, schools closing, and no sign of any benefit for the state sector. Latest figures as at August 2025 show that at least 10,000 pupils have been forced to leave independent schools and around 50 schools have sadly closed already, putting more pressure on the state sector. All the while Labour has failed to deliver on its commitment to recruit 6,500 extra teachers in the state sector.
