Schools are the most important factor when Londoners are choosing where to raise children, new polling data from the Greater London Authority (GLA) has found.
Over half of the people surveyed believed schools were the most important factor, above both housing affordability and crime and safety.
The GLA survey asked 1,416 people whether London was a suitable place to raise children, with 41% believing it is, compared with 30% labelling it unsuitable.
Parent Colleen Monaghan, 35, who lives in Clapham said: “I think education is the number one priority for me when it comes to my son.”
She added: “If there were no really good state schools around me, I would definitely consider moving further out.”
The survey found that women believed London to be less suitable than men, with a total of 32% versus 28% of men.
Monaghan initially considered sending her son to a private school to ensure he got the best education possible, but since the VAT regulations came into effect last year, it was no longer affordable.
The government added a 20% VAT on top of private school fees on 1 January 2025 to pay for more state school teachers in England.
Monaghan’s son did not get into their top choice primary school, and she believes good schools have become very competitive in London.
She said: “I think it’s become more competitive to get your kids into a really good state school, because now private schools have to charge VAT.
“So a lot of parents were like: ‘Well, before I could have just scraped by and sent my kid to a really good private school, but now, with the extra 20%, I can’t do that.’ So you have this mass influx of applications.”
Monaghan believes Clapham’s options for high quality state schools for primary are better than secondary.
She plans to let her son go to a state school for primary and then consider sending him to a private school for secondary, or failing that, move further out of the city to get access to better state schools.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Kenny Eliason via Unsplash
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