College vows to not go on Labour’s proposed charges tax hike to folks

The headmaster of a high non-public faculty has pledged to not go Labour’s threatened tax hike on to folks.

Peter Roberts mentioned 222-year-old Ampleforth College would do every little thing it might to soak up the prices of the occasion’s plan to cost 20 per cent VAT on charges.

Labour would additionally scrap the 80 per cent reduction the faculty, referred to as the ‘Catholic Eton’, and different non-public colleges obtain on enterprise charges, if elected.

Many households might face unaffordable expenses if colleges go on the upper prices, which Labour would impose in its first yr in energy.

But Mr Roberts, 61, instructed the Daily Telegraph: ‘If there’s a VAT factor, we is not going to go it on to the mother and father. We will simply do all we are able to to verify we get by means of, simply as we all the time do.’

Labour backed down from a risk to abolish the charitable standing of personal colleges final September, however is pushing forward with the tax adjustments. The occasion, citing a research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, mentioned these might increase £1.5 billion a yr to be ploughed again into state colleges.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer denied his coverage was an ‘assault on non-public colleges’, saying he was ‘very snug’ with them.

But Rishi Sunak has accused Labour of stoking a ‘class battle’ and mentioned the proposals could be ‘clamping down’ on hard-working mother and father aspiring to ship their kids to impartial colleges.

Past pupils of Ampleforth, primarily based close to the North Yorkshire village of the identical title, embrace Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, actors Rupert Everett and James Norton, and the late Cardinal Basil Hume.

It acquired a clear invoice from Ofsted in 2022 after inspectors had rated it ‘insufficient’ following safeguarding issues.