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Boarding school fees 'increase sharply'

People who send their children to fee-paying boarding schools are facing above-inflation price rises, personal loans lender Halifax has claimed.

According to the firm, the charges increased by 86 per cent between 1997 and 2007 - around three times the increase of the Retail Price Index.

Many families have therefore been effectively been priced out of the market, with the average annual fee increasing from 55 per cent to 73 per cent of average earnings across the decade.

Unsurprisingly, the highest annual fee - at £23,250 - was to be found in London.

The West Midlands (£22,542) and the South East (£21,234) scored second and third places - with Welsh boarders found by Halifax to pay the least at £18,540.

Fees for day pupils were found to be half those of those children who boarded, however.

The overall number of private school pupils in the UK stood at 668,300 in 2007 - a rise of seven per cent since 1997.

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