Elizabeth Truss' speech to educational publishers in December should be the start of doing something about the sheer lack of non-fiction reading in our schools, including the use of textbooks. She points out that only 10% of British teachers, compared with 86% of German teachers, use textbooks as the basis for teaching 10 year old pupils, and it is highly likely that this includes the private sector - most schools in the state sector don't use them at all.
The reason for this is the post-Plowden progressive emphasis on first-hand experience rather than books as the basis of education. At its height, when I worked in Essex in the eighties, the local authority actually published a paper dissuading teachers from using books as the basis of primary work. The reasoning was obvious - first hand experience rather than literacy removed the educational advantages of more literate pupils. The flaw in the reasoning was equally clear - the less literate pupils got less experience and practice in reading than those whose parents made sure they got this at home.
Textbooks can be over-used, but we have got to the stage where they are not being used at all, and publishers won't produce them because there is no market. The only publishers producing textbooks at all are Galore Park, whose market is pretty much confined to prep schools. There may be an opportunity for them to expand.