The public cost of private school

Research carried out by Malcolm James, Jane Kenway and Rebecca Boden focuses on how private schools acquire, sustain and use their wealth – and it appears some are taking advantage of their charitable status

Eton is just one of the private schools whose wealth was studied (AFP/Getty)

Some UK private schools appear to be taking advantage of their charitable status and the lax legal definition of “public benefit” by charging fees that are increasingly out of kilter with their ongoing costs.

Around 1,300 UK private schools, including the vast majority of the most prestigious private institutions, enjoy long-standing charitable status. This gives them substantial tax advantages but obliges them to use their charitable resources for public benefit.

Our research, conducted over the last four years, focuses on how these schools acquire, sustain and use their wealth, and on the associated thin transparency and accountability regimes that have endured for more than a century. (Responses received are collated at the end of this article.)