Is it a class act?
The government announced plans to impose VAT on private school fees to fund improvements in public education.
The current exemption from value-added tax (VAT) will be removed to fund 6,500 new teachers in England. VAT at the standard rate of 20% will be added to private school fees starting 1 January 2025.
In a poll of agents, 24% report noticing an increase in demand for homes close to outstanding rated schools, directly associated with the announcement.
Just 15% of schools are judged to be Ofsted Outstanding, but 90% achieved the rating: Good or Outstanding, up from 68% in 2010 – suggesting that standards are continuing to improve. (Department for Education). Source: Dataloft by PriceHubble (https://inform.dataloft.co.uk/) poll of subscribers. Poll 24th July 2024.
How will it affect the Harlow Property Market?
Harlow has 29 primary and 6 secondary schools.
Overall the situation in Harlow is very good.
90% of Harlow’s primary schools are rated good by Ofsted (26/29).
1 school (Hare St) is rated Outstanding. The remaining 2 schools are now classed as improving.
Therefore, parents have few if any concerns when moving to Harlow if they have children of primary school age.
When it comes to secondary schools, there is a different picture.
1 school is outstanding while 4 are good & the other is improving.
Co owner Geoff Flewers says: “Harlow gets a bad press and whilst sometimes it is deserved, mostly it isn’t. When it comes to education, it’s amazing and fantastic that Harlow has no schools classed as inadequate.”
Firstly, 32 of it’s 36 schools are rated Outstanding or good.
secondly, the remainder are all improving.