School Fees: VAT

Debate between Baroness Watkins of Tavistock and Lord Livermore

Monday 13th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The noble Lord mentions crazy mathematics—I think he was one of the leading proponents of Brexit, so he would know all about crazy mathematics. This measure raises £1.7 billion to spend on state schools. He will have seen in the previous SR settlement for schools that, to raise school standards for every child and break down barriers to opportunity, the Government are increasing the core schools budget by £4.7 billion per year by 2028-29. This is a real-terms increase of 1.1% on average each year, on a per-pupil basis, taking per-pupil funding to a new record high.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

Will the Minister comment on data that seems to suggest that schools are using some of this additional money to fund free school meals—because there is insufficient funding for the level of the cost of those meals—rather than employing more teachers?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I do not know about specific decisions that each individual school is making. Obviously, how individual schools fund a specific policy is a matter for them, but I am very confident that our free school meals policy is fully funded.

Taxes

Debate between Baroness Watkins of Tavistock and Lord Livermore

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am not quite sure what tax the noble Lord is referring to, but absolutely not, because it is essential to stabilising the public finances and to funding our public services. The party opposite welcomed all the spending we announced in the spending review a few weeks ago, so if it wants the spending, it has to have the taxes to pay for it.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

My Lords, when the Treasury is considering how it is going to increase its revenue, will it give careful consideration to the fact that UK graduates repaying student loans are already disadvantaged, in that they are paying 9% additional tax above just over £20,000 to pay off their loans? Here is an example. A student spoke to me recently who is a young teacher with an old-fashioned loan that now stands at only £9,000, through very careful repayment, but who is paying £64.51 a month in interest on the loan. As we consider tax, I ask the Minister to encourage the Treasury to make student loan repayments, or at very least the interest on them, tax-deductible.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. It was premised on a hypothetical, and I am not going to speculate on the next Budget now. I absolutely understand the issues that she is raising, and I am very happy to take those points back to my colleagues in the Treasury.