Independent school sector leaders have called on the Labour Party to provide detail of its tax policy, with reports that headteachers could reclaim VAT from large buildings and maintenance projects up to 10 years old, The Independent has reported.

David Woodgate, chief executive of the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association, said: “Schools will be doing everything they can to plan for Labour’s tax on children’s education. Without policy detail, it is difficult for them to do so fully – and impossible to know the full implications for their budgets.”

A spokesperson from the Independent Schools Council commented: “A full impact assessment of the policy is needed, to look at the potential consequences for all schools, but particularly for smaller independent schools who will be hit hardest.”

Helen Pike, master of Magdalen College School in Oxford warned Labour’s tax policy “is going to hit the people who can afford it the least the hardest – the majority of schools don’t have the capacity to absorb the increase”.