Labour’s VAT raid forced a teenage girl, 13, out of private school and now council has to fund her £8,000 taxi bill_Nhy
More than £8,000 a year is being spent by a council on taxis to take a 13-year-old to school after she was forced out of private education by Labour’s VAT raid.
Ava Lambert’s parents could no longer afford private education after her fees rose by £3,270 – and the only state school that had places at such short notice was 25 miles away.
Initially her mother Sarah gave up her job as a nurse practitioner to take her daughter to and from school.
She then applied to Lincolnshire County Council for funding. It turned down the application twice but, following an appeal, now spends £42.05 a day – £8,200 a year – on taxis for Ava.
Mrs Lambert, 59, whose husband Will spent 23 years in the Army, said they began looking for state schools in the area last term but were told by every school in a 20-mile radius they had no vacancies.
She added: ‘I found one school that was 25 miles away. They were the only school that said “why don’t you fill out an application form, Ava will go on a long waiting list because we are completely oversubscribed but at least she’s in the system”.
‘Four weeks later, I got a phone call saying she could start in a fortnight…I had no time to do anything.
‘We leapt at the opportunity, got her new uniform and she began in the middle of December.’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. Labour’s VAT tax grab on private schools has left a council spending £8,000 a year for a taxi to take a 13-year-old girl to school after she was forced into the state system
Lincolnshire County Council pays £42.05 a day on taxis to get Ava Lambert to her new school (file photo)
However the distance meant Mrs Lambert had to give up her job at a GP surgery to drive Ava there.
She switched to working night shifts, answering 111 calls sometimes until 2am before waking up five hours later for the 50-mile round trip to get her daughter to school.
Mrs Lambert said: ‘It was only after a friend told me about free school transport that I decided to apply. I have never applied for anything from the state but I thought I am going to fight this. I was so angry.
‘This wasn’t my fault. It was [Education Secretary] Bridget Phillipson’s fault,’ she told The Sunday Telegraph. After rejecting her application twice, Lincolnshire County Council finally agreed to provide a taxi service which began last Monday.
With a further four years until Ava completes her A-levels, it could cost the council around £38,000 to finish her schooling. Local authorities must provide free transport to pupils whose nearest available state school is more than three miles away or for disabled children who cannot walk there.
In urban areas this often takes the form of a travelcard that allows children to use public transport for free. However if there is no public transport available, authorities rely on expensive private taxis.
Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP for Rutland and Stamford, said it was more evidence that ‘Labour’s dogma-driven policy was riddled with hidden consequences’ which will harm taxpayers.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘For years Sarah has subsidised the education of others by educating her daughter privately.
‘Now an economically illiterate policy of envy has driven her daughter from her school and her from her job as a nurse, and this will cost the taxpayer around £18,000 a year.
‘This policy is little more than a resentment tax, and it’s you and I paying the cost of it.’
The Treasury estimates Labour’s 20 per cent VAT levy will raise £1.8billion next year.
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said the revelation was more evidence that ‘Labour’s dogma-driven policy was riddled with hidden consequences’
However this figure reportedly does not account for the additional transport costs for pupils forced out of private education and whose nearest available state school is more than three miles away.
Joanna Marchong, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be rightfully furious at footing the bill for the fallout of this botched tax raid on private schools.
‘Ministers must rethink this tax raid before more families are caught up in the chaos and more councils are landed with eye-watering expenses.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘We have been clear that the impact from pupils switching from private schools into state school will be minimal, representing less than 0.1 per cent of all pupils.
‘Ending tax breaks for private schools will raise £1.8billion a year by 2029-30, so we can invest in our vital public services, including supporting the 94 per cent of children in state schools to achieve and thrive.
‘The vast majority of pupils do not need home-to-school transport and we are confident that the state sector will be able to accommodate any additional pupils.’
