Without exception, every school cited in an article as closing due to VAT was already not a going concern.
I’m wondering whether there has been any impact on private schools from the higher interest rates since 2023. Have there been closures over the last year, perhaps for this reason?
Similar to most article about WASPI women. Cases described are exasperated by ill health, job loss and / or bad financial decisions.
👀 MATs …
And yet the (much higher) fee-paying school in Newcastle Under Lyme, just up the road, both prep and senior, has record numbers at over 1000. Low numbers and a poor reputation have more to do with the closure but there are no headlines in that.
See also Kilgraston in Perthshire. Catholic all-girl boarding school with £41,000pa fees and just 173 pupils. The free market had already voted "no thanks".
Hundreds of pupils face a scramble for places days before the start of term after two private schools announced their closure following Labour's VAT bombshell.
Indeed - if someone cant make money in a supply constrained market catering to demonstrably wealthy people where the high cost is a significant part of the attractiveness of the service then perhaps business isn't for them.
Winder if my prep school is going too? West House.
Yup. I did this thread when BBC piece got published on Tues, digging into the details. It’s simply changing demographics (also affects state schools) and long economic decline. I contacted BBC newsdesk and reporter with all docs in this thread but they stick to VAT line bsky.app/profile/stev...
Shame. I was hoping some would shut as a result of the change.
We’ve seen that Eton will pass on VAT to parents meaning an increase of around £10,000 to £63,000. However, will other “healthy” schools pass on the full increase? As a business, will some reduce activities in order to absorb some of the VAT cost? Healthy businesses will survive.