Yahoo Finance All our non-teaching staff are at risk under Labour’s VAT raid, says private school head
A private school has warned all of its non-teaching staff risk being made redundant if Labour wins the General Election.
Antony Oulton, the principal of Hulme Grammar School in Oldham, said 100 staff could lose their jobs if Labour’s tax raid on private education comes into effect.
Labour has remained steadfast in its commitment to impose 20pc VAT on fees, which it says will help fund the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers.
But head teachers have told The Telegraph that rather than creating more jobs, the policy will force private schools to make drastic cuts which meant staff redundancies would be “inevitable”.
Mr Oulton said: “We employ 180 people, if this were to be existential as it is for many independent schools particularly smaller ones, 100 of those 180 jobs are on the non-teaching side of things and live within a two to three mile radius of the school – their jobs might be at risk as a result of this.”
John Paget-Tomlinson, headmaster at Leweston School in Dorset, said the school’s budget for the next academic year was being reassessed following the election announcement last week and the cost of staffing “will probably have to be addressed”.
He said: “The sector as a whole, and certainly schools like mine, would have to look at the broad offering of the education we give.
“It means making departments smaller maybe, you are looking at the amount of support we can provide for children who need to be challenged, gifted and talented it used to be called, or those that need more support in the classroom who have very specific learning needs.
“We’d have to look at all of that to be able to be sure we continue to deliver the level of education that we do.
“This is the time of year where budgets are being finalised and we’ve had to revisit those now.”
The headmasters also criticised shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves after she suggested private schools faced with closures will simply have to “make efficiencies” in an interview on Sunday.
Mr Paget-Tomlinson described her comments as “somewhat dismissive”, adding: “I find it incredible. If she were to refer to almost any independent school’s Charity Commission entry, she would find that the single largest cost is staff.
“I would be interested to sit with her and discuss how a school like mine could achieve cost savings without making members of staff unemployed or reducing the educational provision available.”
The average private school spends 70pc of its budget on staff salaries, according to the Independent Schools Council, but this is even higher at the £19,125-a-year school in rural Dorset where it accounts for more than 75pc.
Mr Paget-Tomlinson said: “We serve a rural community, our parents are mostly small business owners, farmers, professionals, nurses, social workers, they send their children to the school and work hard to do that.
“The policy is not clear and it may not be made clear by the manifesto. It would be useful to discuss before this arbitrary approach is taken without, in my opinion, any real thought through processes and certainly no information to schools about the nature of the policy.”
Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said: “Schools will be doing everything they can to protect teachers’ jobs – teachers are the most valuable asset that any school has.
“However, the majority of our schools are small, local community schools who cannot cut their running costs by a fifth nor expect parents to pay the extra 20pc that this policy would put on their fees.
“Between two-thirds and three-quarters of any school’s budget goes on staff costs and this policy would mean many schools will have no choice but to consider all their options, especially as we still have so little detail about the policy.”
Labour was approached for comment.
