Sixth-Form Colleges (VAT)

Debate between Caroline Lucas and Lisa Nandy

Tuesday 17th December 2013 Westminster Hall

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

My constituency is home to two excellent sixth-form colleges, St John Rigby college and Winstanley college. Like so many of the 94 sixth-form colleges in the country, they do an excellent job, not only for their students but for the wider community. It is deeply unfair that they must pay VAT while school and academy sixth forms do not. In other types of free 16 to 19 education provision, funding is diverted to the front line. Why not for students in sixth forms?

Following recent changes to the funding formula, the anomaly has become unjustifiable. That view is shared by at least 74 other Members of Parliament, including the Chairman of the Select Committee on Education and my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (John Woodcock), who wanted to highlight the case of Barrow-in-Furness sixth-form college but unfortunately cannot be here due to illness.

This unfair situation is exacerbated by the cuts made to sixth-form colleges in recent years. In 2010, enrichment funding was reduced from 114 to just 30 hours a year. Subsequently, the new 16 to 19 funding formula cut their budgets further—the average was 6%, which masks much more serious cuts for some. Last week, out of the blue, sixth-form colleges were told that 18-year-olds would no longer attract the same level of funding. Ministers argued that it was because those students have already received two years of funding, which completely misses the point that they are often the young people who most need and benefit from the additional help that we can provide.

[Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)]

The hon. Lady is making a strong case. On behalf of the three sixth-form colleges in my constituency, I absolutely agree. Will she comment on the fact that the sixth-form colleges in Brighton disagree with the Government’s position that VAT costs are taken into account in the up-front funding allocation made to colleges? If she agrees, will she join me in saying to the Minister that surely that means schools and academies are effectively being double-funded, because they are getting that as well as the VAT rebate?

[Lisa Nandy]

Absolutely. Issues of a level playing field are at the heart of this debate and I hope that the Minister will respond to that in his closing remarks.

Taken together, in the worst cases, the funding cuts have left some sixth-form colleges reeling from a staggering 30% overall budget cut. We should consider the issue against that backdrop.

Civil servants originally estimated that creating a level playing field for sixth-form colleges in relation to VAT would cost £20 million. They have since revised that upwards on several occasions, arriving most recently at a figure of £150 million, which includes other institutions. I say to the Minister that it seems completely the wrong approach, given that the Government have accepted in principle that treating sixth-form colleges differently is wrong, to refuse to right that wrong for them because they do not want to do so for others.

The problems for sixth-form colleges are exacerbated by the fact that, unlike school sixth forms, they cannot cross-subsidise their 16 to 19 work with funding from pre-16 provision, which is more generous. Principals and teachers across the sector are taking agonising decisions about dropping courses, cutting staff or reducing activities. A survey last year found nearly half of colleges had had to drop courses, eight out of 10 had had to cut staff and an astonishing 71% had removed or reduced enrichment activities such as sport, music, drama and dance. That is a loss for all young people, but it is devastating for young people who have never had such opportunities open to them.