PARENTS of private school pupils face paying an extra £300 a year as a result of changes to tax relief, it has been estimated.
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said the decision to charge Scottish independent schools business rates would represent a hit worth just 1.6 per cent of their average fees.
He insisted this did not represent a “financial shock” that would lead to “a mass exodus from independent schools to the state sector”.
It comes after some private school headteachers warned the end of business rates relief would “wreck” the education sector by pushing more children into state institutions.
Mr Mackay said the “vast majority” of families would be able to absorb the extra costs if private schools decided to pass on the burden by upping fees.
He said: “The estimated average charity relief per pupil is £225. The average daily fees paid per pupil is estimated to be around £13,700 per annum.
“Now these are averages based on the work that we’ve done. Total fees is estimated to be around £374 million, so charity rates relief therefore represents around 1.6 per cent of the average fees paid.
“So for around 80 per cent of pupils that we’ve been able to look at, on the numbers that we have, the average charity relief will be £300 or less.
"That is not such a financial shock that I think would lead to a mass exodus from independent schools to the state sector and I've had no concern raised with me that I'm aware of from the main local authority that would be affected by such a policy, Edinburgh, that they're concerned about pupils returning to the state sector.
“This doesn’t affect their charity status, it only affects non-domestic rates status.”
The draft Scottish Budget would see private schools stripped of their charitable relief from business rates, a move expected to boost Scottish Government finances by £5m.
The proposal follows a recommendation made by the recent Barclay Review of the business rates system and does not remove the charitable status of independent schools.
Mr Mackay said it had been put to him that some schools might respond to this “by curtailing bursary entitlement to less well-off students”.
But he added: “I don't think that there would be a rush from independent mainstream schools to become, or have a perception that they're becoming elitist or more elitist, but if they pass on directly that removal of relief that's the scale we're talking about, less than two per cent.
"And it's from that analysis I conclude that that would probably be absorbed by the vast majority of fee paying students and pupils and their families.
"Local authority schools pay non-domestic rates so why not independent mainstream schools? This is about fairness in education."
But John Edward, director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, rejected Mr Mackay’s claims.
He insisted they were based on a “massive misunderstanding” of the wealth of parents, and argued the shake-up would hit the level of means-tested assistance schools were able to offer.
He said: “The whole point in being a charity is that independent schools are not-for-profit. They don’t have a huge amount of reserves.
“If you have got parents who are getting means-tested assistance, and if they are getting 40 per cent assistance and the fees go up, then that 40 per cent is no longer enough.”
He said private schools would be forced to either reduce the level of assistance they give to less well-off parents, sell off assets such as playing fields or raise fees in order to cope.
He added: “There’s plenty of evidence from schools down south that even a marginal increase in fees will have a massive impact.”
Edinburgh Council confirmed it did not expect “significant additional pressures” as a result of the change.
Councillor Ian Perry, education leader at Edinburgh Council, said: “We understand the additional costs will be marginal compared to the overall cost of school fees so we don't expect an exodus of children from the independent sector and we have sufficient capacity in our overall school estate.”
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