CP
More than 100 independent schools have closed since Labour imposed VAT on private school fees, a policy that has affected more than 25,000 children and exposed the scale of what critics describe as a reckless ideological experiment driven by class resentment rather than evidence.
Figures released on the first anniversary of the policy show that 105 independent schools have ceased operations since the 20 per cent VAT charge on fees came into force on January 1 last year.
The total was confirmed by Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, who said the policy had proved a bridge too far for many institutions already operating on tight margins.
Ms Robinson warned that the situation is likely to worsen through 2026 as the full impact of VAT and additional tax pressures feeds through the sector. She said that while closures often result from a combination of factors, there is no doubt that the government’s decision to tax education has pushed many schools over the edge. Fifteen of the 105 schools were absorbed through mergers, while the rest shut completely.
The closures directly contradict Labour’s repeated claims, championed by Shadow Chancellor turned Chancellor Rachel Reeves, that the policy would not result in schools shutting. Ministers initially insisted no schools were expected to close at all. Only after a dozen had already collapsed did a Treasury minister concede that as many as 100 schools could disappear over three years, a figure that has now been reached in just one.
Labour also claimed only around three per cent of pupils would leave the independent sector, roughly 18,000 children. The current figure of 25,000 affected pupils has already surpassed that estimate, making a mockery of the forecasts used to justify the policy.
Closures have not been confined to struggling rural schools. Nearly one in five have occurred in London and the surrounding area. Schools forced to shut include Park Hill School in Kingston and Falcons School in Putney, both of which cited VAT on fees as the decisive factor. Other London closures include The Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon, Ursuline Prep in Ilford, London Acorn in Morden, The Cedars School in Croydon, and Oak Heights in Hounslow.
High profile institutions have also been hit by severe financial strain. Marlborough College in Wiltshire, attended by the Princess of Wales and widely discussed as a possible future school for Prince George, has reportedly been forced to turn off heating during holidays to cut costs. Despite charging fees of up to £61,800 a year, the school has already cancelled its summer school after 50 years, citing financial pressures including VAT.
Elsewhere, Queen Margaret’s School for Girls in York, founded in 1901, closed last summer after governors said it could not withstand mounting financial pressures. Other casualties include Carrdus School in Banbury, Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire, and The Meadows Montessori in Ipswich, whose head blamed targeted measures against independent schools, including VAT.
Lost in Labour’s triumphalist rhetoric about taxing private education are the children now paying the price. Among those displaced are pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and children who were bullied or failed by the state system. Many of their parents made the difficult decision to pay private fees from already taxed earnings to secure specialist support, smaller class sizes, or simply a safe environment their local state school could not provide. For these families, independent education was not a luxury but a last resort.
The closure of schools catering to such children has left families scrambling for alternatives that often do not exist within the state sector. The fate of these pupils, many with complex needs, is the human cost Labour has refused to acknowledge. These are the children for whom promises were made, then broken.
A government spokesman has dismissed concerns, claiming a crisis has failed to materialise and insisting the policy will raise £1.8 billion a year by 2029 or 30 to fund public services. That assurance offers little comfort to families whose schools have vanished and whose children have been uprooted.
Labour’s insistence that this was about fairness now rings hollow. The evidence points instead to a spiteful and vindictive class war, driven by ideological hostility and fronted by Rachel Reeves, in which children, including some of the most vulnerable, have become collateral damage. On that record, it is Labour that must be held accountable, for the closures, for the broken promises, and for the children they have failed.
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