With government plans for VAT to be added to private school fees, hundreds of parents whose children attend private schools have already enquired about places at State schools in Hertfordshire, it has emerged.

But at a meeting of the county council's education, libraries and lifelong learning cabinet panel, councillors heard that this had not yet translated into applications for school places.

Currently private schools are exempt from having to charge VAT on their tuition or boarding fees.

But that's expected to change – from as early as January 1 (2025) – with government plans for the 20 per cent VAT rate to be added to private school fees.

The plans have led to predictions that a proportion of parents with children currently in the independent sector would seek places in the State sector.

But on Wednesday (September 11) councillors were told that, so far, only a "handful" of pupils had joined county schools from the private sector.

In answer to a question by Liberal Democrat Cllr Lawrence Brass, the county council's deputy head of admissions Jayne Abery said that prior to the summer break they had had "literally hundreds of enquiries".

But she said "very few" of those enquiries transferred to applications or allocations – "literally a handful".

And she said: "We are noticing a slight increase in applications from the independent sector. But it's certainly by no means a storm at the moment."

Nevertheless she said that they were monitoring the situation "very very carefully".

In posing the question Cllr Brass said "some of the media would have us believe that there has been a huge onrush from one sector to another".

But after hearing the offier's response he suggested this had been "scare-mongering".

"Some of the media would have us believe there has been an avalanche of applications – and it is clearly not true," he said.

"It is scare-mongering."

However Conservative Cllr Caroline Clapper – the county council's executive member for education, libraries and lifelong learning – said that applications for secondary school places for September 2025 had only just opened.

And she suggested that his was an issue that they may return to.

She said: "I think this is probably something that we will come back to.

"Because, the VAT increase is supposed to come-in in January – which means that our secondary school admission rounds , for example, have just opened.

"So once we start to get an understanding of the figures – and the amount of applications – we will probably get a clearer picture of exactly where we are.

"So this is probably something that I think we need to return to. And I know a lot of the officers are doing a lot of work on this – to monitor and mitigate what could potentially happen."

Final details on the planned changes to tax breaks for private schools – as well as the government's assessment of the expected impacts – are expected to be confirmed in the government's Budget, at the end of October.