Sir,
Put VAT on school fees
Trevor Stevens, in his letter to the Oxford Times this week, prominently headlined “Abolishing private schools might help”, writes that private schools are one of the ways, along with buying houses in good school catchment areas, by which the wealthy buy themselves the privilege of a better education. Indeed so, but abolition thereof is a rather startlingly illiberal suggestion!
However it would not be illiberal, and it would be good, to tax them by putting VAT on the substantial fees paid by those wealthy enough to afford them. Some parents would be influenced to send their children to state supported schools instead. The tax proceeds from others, including many from overseas, could be used to increase resources and raise standards in state supported schools, including the sporting facilities so sadly reduced by the Conservative Party in the past.
Such a policy, of VAT on private school fees, is for these reasons the party policy of the Liberal Party. It would be good if the Liberal Democrats and other political parties were to follow suit.
Dane Clouston
Oxfordshire Liberals
Member, Liberal Party National Executive Committee