Nearly half of private school parents forced to cut back on everyday spending following Labour's tax hike
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By ELEANOR HARDING, EDUCATION EDITOR
Published: | Updated:
Almost half of private school parents have been forced to cut back on everyday spending following Labour's tax hikes, a survey suggests.
Polling by the charity Parentkind found 40 per cent of families with children in independent education have had to make financial sacrifices in the last year to afford it.
In addition, 28 per cent said they were struggling to afford this cost.
It comes after Labour put VAT on private school fees starting in January last year, meaning costs to families increased by 20 per cent in many cases.
At the time, ministers said it was necessary to pay for improvements to state schools, including 6,500 new teachers.
The polling was part of the Parentkind National Parent survey 2026, which garnered responses from 6,053 parents with children aged four to eighteen.
Of that total, 476 were parents with children in private schools.
Frank Young, chief executive of Parentkind, said: 'Not every parent who chooses an independent school is wealthy. Some make that choice because of special educational needs, faith or other personal circumstances, and many scrimp and save to afford it.'
Almost half of private school parents have been forced to cut back on every day spending following Labour 's tax hikes, a survey suggests (file picture)
The average annual fee for a private day pupil was £19,000 last year, up from £18,000 the previous year, while boarding fees averaged £50,000, rising from £42,000, according to the Good Schools Guide.
With the added inflation pressures, parents whose children started at private school last year will pay about 84 per cent more on average for their education than those whose children finished private school last year.
Meanwhile, official figures earlier this year showed pay has grown at its slowest rate in more than five years.
One parent told The Times anonymously: 'We have made what feels like the ultimate sacrifice: we've sent only one of our children to private school.
'And I think families like ours, part of the so-called squeezed middle, are going to become increasingly common.'
A Department for Education spokesman said: 'Ending tax breaks for private schools is delivering billions of pounds to improve education for the 94 per cent of children in state schools.'
They added that parents of children with special educational needs have previously 'had to fight' to find a school place to suit them, but the government is spending £4 billion to raise the number of specialist teachers and another £3.7 billion to deliver 60,000 specialist places.
The nationally-representative survey of UK parents was conducted by YouGov and is the biggest of its kind.
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