Middle classes 'priced out of private schools'

Parents in only 13 occupations, including doctors, lawyers and accountants, can now allegedly afford the fees.

Teachers, engineers and rank-and-file police are among those in ten jobs which are said to have been priced out of choosing an independent education for their children over the last five years.

Halifax Financial Services, which compiled the figures, said fees for day pupils at independent schools have risen 41 per cent in five years - more than twice the rate of inflation.

It means day fees - which average £9,627 a year - take up a larger slice of earnings than in 2002, putting private schools beyond most single-income households. Boarding fees have risen almost as steeply since 2002, at 36 per cent - and average £20,970 a year.

Not even doctors who are the sole earner in their family can comfortably afford them.

But the Independent Schools Council condemned the analysis as "flawed and misleading". It said that while rising costs including teachers' pension contributions have driven up fees, they remain affordable to many more families than claimed.

Many of the most prestigious schools were embarrassed last year by a prolonged inquiry into fee-fixing allegations. Fifty, including Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Charterhouse and Tonbridge, agreed to pay financial penalties totalling £3.5million following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.

The schools admitted that for three years between 2001 and 2004 they exchanged detailed and sensitive information about the boarding and day fees they were intending to charge. However, they say their participation in fees surveys did not make charges any higher than they should have been.

The Halifax figures assume that school fees should account for no more than 25 per cent of average gross earnings. On this basis, families could afford day school fees this year only if they brought in around £38,500 a year.

Only 13 professions have average salaries at or above this level, according to the analysis.

As well as doctors, lawyers and accountants, they include company directors, airline pilots, senior police officers, bank managers, architects, IT professionals and pharmacists. In 2002, parents in 23 occupations could have covered costs. Among professionals frozen out are teachers, lecturers, engineers, rank-and-file police officers, tax advisers, journalists and trading standards officers.

They would now have to hope an independent school could provide a means-tested bursary to enable their children to attend. Financial assistance is given to 31 per cent of pupils.

The study said that in the past year, private school fees have risen by six per cent, compared to retail price inflation of four per cent.

Jonathan Shephard, general secretary of the ISC, which represents 1,300 independent day and boarding schools, said: "We hope that sooner or later Halifax will join the 21st century and recognise that stable families commonly have two income earners.

"A police constable and a teacher outside London would have a combined income of £49,430 three years into their careers - easily enough, on Halifax's calculations, to fund an independent school place.

"Affordability is always an issue, but independent education is within the reach of many more families than is often believed. By ignoring the likelihood of two income earners the Halifax survey is flawed and misleading."

Despite fee increases, private schools are taking a greater share of pupils as parents desert state education. They now educate 6.7 per cent of pupils - up from 6.2 per cent in 2002.