§ 27. Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenportasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has yet been able to give consideration to the question of allowing Income Tax relief to those parents who pay tuition fees at independent schools and colleges; and what decision he has arrived at.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe Answer to the first part is that this question has been considered. I cannot anticipate the next Budget.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-DavenportCan my right hon. Friend say what would be the cost to the Exchequer and the extra number of teachers and schools required if all these people sent their children to the other schools? Do they not perform a great public service by paying for the education of their children, always at great personal sacrifice, and do they not deserve some such help as this in doing so?
§ Mr. ButlerI have not the statistics of what the swelling in the school population would be if all people who send their children to private schools were to send them to the general schools of the country. I agree that a certain degree of sacrifice is involved, and I endeavoured in the last Budget to give some child relief, which, I think, must have been of some help.
Mr. H. WilsonSince it is rather early in the financial year for the Chancellor to be anticipating the next Budget, are we to assume from his remarks that we are to expect another supplementary Budget before the normal Budget next April?
§ Mr. ButlerI think we have had enough Budgets for the time being.