“This is the inside story of how Somerset private schools refused to contribute to a local community fund.”
Local councillor
Sometimes good ideas are worth recycling.
Three years ago myself (a Labour councillor) and another independent councillor had the idea to try and re-distribute some resources in our local district council area.
Taunton Deane, as it was called then, “boasts” four sizeable independent schools. They all, as registered charities, can and do apply for the 80 per cent mandatory business rates relief afforded to them.
In round figures this comes to an amount of about £1 million per year.
Clearly the district council has no ability to deny this relief, and neither is any power available to it to recoup any of these funds.
At the same time, as charities, they are legally required to provide a statement of public benefit in their annual reports. Research has shown that generalisation was rife in these statements, despite clear guidance that they should not be “tokenistic” in nature.
Set against a backfire of nearly a decade of “austerity” in which local government has seen a continuing loss of central government financial support, we put together a plan aimed at redressing some kind of balance.
A voluntary 10% contribution
The idea was to create a council policy which invited our local independent schools to make a voluntary contribution of 10 per cent of their business rates relief into a fund held and administered by our local Community Foundation.
This would be used to augment grant-giving to local voluntary and community organisations which had been hard hit by reducing local government funding. The value of the fund created would be about £100,000 per year.
Surely a win:win situation? More funds for local good causes and a solid, quantifiable means of schools being able to demonstrate their commitment to clear public benefit.
The proposal failed to pass. It was agreed that a dialogue should be initiated with the schools to find ways for them to support our local communities in greatest need.
>
“Surely a win:win situation? More funds for local causes and a quantifiable means of schools demonstrating public benefit”
But despite my persistent enthusiasm for this, and ongoing efforts to move it forward, it failed to materialise.
In 2019 the old Taunton Deane borough council merged with neighbouring West Somerset district council, and a completely new council was created – Somerset West and Taunton.
Previous policies no longer existed. So I decided to try and reinvigorate the idea, this time supported by another Labour councillor. Despite having a new authority, with a very different political make-up, again, the motion failed.
Labour councillors are always in a minority locally – currently there are only three of us – but there was lack of political support from Liberal Democrats (now in control) and independents (official opposition).
Clearly other councillors found the idea radical. Many of them opined that they supported the principle, but didn’t want to take what might be seen as a confrontational stance with the schools.
It was argued that the cost to the schools would be unaffordable when their financial positions were “on a knife edge”.
>
“It does seem hard to believe that multi-million pound organisations would find a relatively modest sum an onerous burden”
Of course these assertions were never evidenced and it does seem hard to believe that multi-million pound organisations would find a relatively modest sum an onerous burden.
Let’s be clear – each individual school would have contributing about £ 25,000. Less than the cost of school fees for one boarding pupil per annum.
A redistributive and progressive policy sadly lost.
But this idea must, surely, be taken up somewhere in the UK. It’s not copyrighted, so local authorities, feel free to use and adapt elsewhere!
My only caveat is that I would dearly like to know if anyone is successful.
Meanwhile, locally, we live to fight another day…
Following publication of this piece, a further feature article on Lisgo’s plan was run by The Guardian.
Libby Lisgo, MBE, has been a Taunton Deane borough councillor for the area since 1995, apart from 2007-2011. She has been leader of the Labour Group, parliamentary candidate for Taunton and in 2013-14 she was mayor of Taunton Deane. For 18 years she was chief executive of Age UK Somerset.
