Some desperate Devon parents have sold their homes and given away a family pet to help pay fees for independent schools that now face a VAT squeeze.

The government plans the tax on private school fees from January, but has been warned it risks penalising hard-up parents of children with special needs which keep them out of mainstream schools.

South Devon Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden told a debate in Westminster Hall that independent schools such as those in rural Devon would close if their pupils were driven away by the higher fees.

Some pupils will drop out of education altogether, teachers will take salary cuts and urgent building repairs will have to be shelved, she claimed.

The government says the revenue from VAT on fees will help fund 6,500 new teachers in England.

But as well as capturing contributions from the wealthiest private schools, some parents believe it will also be a ‘raid’ on smaller independent schools which cater for children with special educational needs (Send).

Ms Voaden said her constituency is home to several small independent schools that offer an alternative education.

She went on: “I have heard from several parents whose children could not cope in state schools. They live with autism or other mental health challenges.

“But they are thriving in those small private settings. These small independent schools, whose fees are as low as they can make them, offer smaller class sizes, fewer class transitions during the day and more emphasis on wellbeing and creativity.”

And, she said, the parents who contacting her are not wealthy.

“They are scraping together the fees so that their children can attend a school where they can thrive.

“One told me that she had sold her house and given away the family pet in order to move into a flat. She changed job to be able to afford the fees, and she now buys everything second hand.

“Another said that they had also sold their home and moved house to afford the fees at their local Steiner school as their children had also failed to cope with mainstream schooling.”

Steiner schools are fee-paying schools that focus on creativity rather than the national curriculum.

Ms Voaden said the imposition of VAT is  a ‘regressive step’ which could have a devastating effect on some children.

“Many of them have already had a difficult start in life,” she said. “Many of them have experience of the care system, our failing mental health system and a state school system completely unable to cope with all their additional or complex needs.

“Yes, the state school system desperately needs investment—we know that. We know that the provision for Send is in a disastrous state, nowhere more so than in Devon, and the chronic underfunding of councils by the previous government has decimated Send provision.”

Ms Voaden warned that state schools in South Devon couldn’t cope with additional demands on their services from children who might lose their places in independent schools, and added: “Dare I say that the Liberal Democrats had several suggestions for tax-raising options in our election manifesto that do not seem to have been considered yet by this government?

“May I humbly suggest that a tax on social media companies might be a good place to start, given the impact that they have on the mental health of our young people.”