Christian private schools have said they will appeal after losing a High Court challenge against the introduction of VAT charges.
The legal challenge was brought by a group of Christian parents, pupils, and schools after the government decided to impose the 20% rate of VAT on independent school fees.
They were defended by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which said that many Christian schools and parents could not afford the additional costs and that the changes were discriminatory and a breach of human rights.
Three High Court judges dismissed the challenge on Friday, arguing that tax policy was a matter for Parliament, not the judiciary, and that there was no legal obligation for the government to ensure access to private education.
The 94-page judgment said that the government was "entitled" to consider that factors like unaffordability for some families were "to be outweighed by the expected revenue raised for public services".
It acknowledged that some human rights may be interfered with but said there was a "broad margin of discretion in deciding how to balance the interests of those adversely affected by the policy against the interests of others who may gain from public provision funded by the money it will raise".
The legal challenge was brought by the Emmanuel School in Derby, the Branch Christian School in Yorkshire, the King’s School in Hampshire and the Wyclif Independent Christian School in South Wales, and some of their pupils and parents.
Lawyers for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, HMRC and the Department for Education, argued that private school parents should pay "their fair share", but lawyers for the Christians argued that this "ignores the fact that private educating families are being asked to pay more taxes on public education than families who actually have their children in public schools".
Caroline Santer, headteacher at The King’s School, in Fair Oak, Hampshire, said the judgment was "a huge disappointment".
"Four times as many pupils as the government expected have left independent education, which means it is increasingly likely that no money will be raised by this policy for state schools, or housing as we have recently heard," she said. "As a small independent Christian school already struggling with extremely narrow profit margins, this legislation and the increase in business rates has hit us hard.
"We keep our fees low in order to be accessible to low income families who want to choose Christian education as is their right, but parents are finding the increase in school fees a huge burden on their already stretched finances.
"Across the sector, smaller schools are struggling to remain financially afloat, which was already a challenge even before the imposition of VAT on fees, which was an ideological move against freedom of choice."
Ben Snowdon, Headteacher at Emmanuel School in Derby, said: “The consequences of this policy will be devastating for independent Christian schools and many other low-cost independent schools across the country.
"It is especially concerning to parents who are not from affluent backgrounds and who have children with special education needs.“At Emmanuel School we share the government’s desire to ensure that all children have access to high quality education, but we’re deeply concerned that the government’s VAT proposals will hinder this aim.”CLC chief executive Andrea Williams said: “What has become clear in recent years, is that the government is pursuing a monopoly over education and what our children will learn. Radical RSE [relationships and sex education] was introduced, even effecting independent Christian schools and primary schools.
"Private faith schools have been targeted with unfair tax burdens. And home educating families and out-of-school religious educators are also being targeted by pending legislation."
