A body representing private schools is launching legal action against the government’s decision to levy VAT on their fees.
Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said the decision “has not been taken lightly and has been under consideration for many months”.
At yesterday’s budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed plans to go ahead with the introduction of VAT on private school fees from January 2025.
The ISC, an umbrella body for seven associations representing such schools, said its case would centre around alleged breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Human Rights Act 1998.
Robinson said: “At all points throughout this debate, our focus has been on the children in our schools who would be negatively impacted by this policy.
“This focus remains and we will be defending the rights of families who have chosen independent education, but who may no longer be able to do so as a direct result of an unprecedented education tax.”
State schools expected to take 35k more pupils
A government response to its own technical consultation on the proposals estimated that in the long-term, 37,000 pupils will leave or never enter the UK private school sector as a result of the VAT policy. This is around six per cent of the current private school population.
Government predicts that 35,000 pupils will move into UK state schools “in the long term steady state” following the VAT policy taking effect in January.
The number expected to move before the end of the 2024-25 academic year “is around 3,000”.
Councils funding placements in these schools for pupils with SEND will be compensated for the VAT they are charged.
The ISC said it would work with human rights barrister Lord David Pannick, Paul Luckhurst from Blackstone Chambers and legal firm Kingsley Napley.
It will be pursuing the case in the High Court, with a pre-action letter to be issued to the government shortly.
It is separate to other litigation by other organisations, but the ISC said it would be “liaising with these other third-party groups”.
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
