'Private' Schools, their Charitable Status and their Property Rights: Legal Barriers to Attenuation

Abstract

At its annual conference in September 2019, the UK Labour Party (then as now in opposition) voted in favour of making a manifesto commitment to “integrate all private schools into the state sector”. The commitment was intended to “include”, but not be limited to, inter alia the “[w]ithdrawal of charitable status and all other public subsidies and tax privileges, including business rate exemption” from such schools, and a commitment for private schools’ “[e]ndowments, investments and properties” to be “redistributed democratically and fairly across the country’s educational institutions”.