Private schools have warned that bursaries for poorer pupils would be at risk under Labour’s plan to remove their charitable status.
Almost £500 million of means-tested bursaries and other forms of fee assistance were awarded by private schools to help more than 40,000 pupils whose parents are unable to pay the fees, according to the Independent Schools Council (ISC).
Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the ISC, which represents more than 1,300 private schools, warned that financial support for poorer families would be under threat if Labour ended tax breaks for private schools.
“Of course all schools faced with a new tax on parents would try to limit the impact by cutting costs,” he told The Telegraph. “How they do that will be up to them, but cutting bursaries for poorer pupils is one possible consequence.
“In the past 20 years independent schools have not only dramatically pushed up the amount of money spent on means-tested bursaries, they have increasingly focused it on the poorest pupils. All this progress is now threatened.”
