Childcare is becoming a luxury only the rich can afford due to Labour’s policies, explains Feyzi Ismail

The Starmer government is bent on attacking all aspects of welfare in its austerity drive, and this includes nursery provision. Reeves’ February budget announced increases in national insurance by employers, but when the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) surveyed 700 nurseries across England, 96 percent said they would increase fees to parents by an average of 10 percent as a result.

Moreover, the survey revealed that 39 percent of nurseries planned to offer fewer childcare places, 17 percent said they would make a loss, and 14 percent said their business was at risk. Cuts to funding for local councils means that Council-run nurseries are not exempt from increasing fees.

From September this year, working parents can access up to 30 hours of free childcare a week for children aged nine months and older. This was a policy carried over from the Tories. But Starmer’s cuts cancel out childcare expansion.

In Hackney, the Council is removing the subsidies it used to provide, which means that some households will see a 70% increase in fees from September.

Nurseries are effectively put in a position where they either increase fees or face uncertainty. The impact on families is unacceptable. Many pay more for childcare than rent and mortgage costs, others are working less or taking pay cuts to save on nursery fees, while others are having fewer children.

Meanwhile Starmer is massively hiking military spending. Providing free universal childcare would be a fraction of this cost.

The campaign to protect nurseries in Hackney is attempting to lobby the Council to reverse the removal of subsidies, and mobilise support from the across the borough. It organised a protest outside the Council’s Cabinet meeting last month, and is organising a demonstration to the Town Hall on 23 June.

It is a political choice not to fund nursery provision, one that will not make the world safer for children but more dangerous.