The Education Committee today writes to the Chancellor of the Exchequer urging him to consider key recommendations from its report on support for childcare and the early years.
The Committee’s letter follows a response from the Department for Education to its report that was published in July.
Education Committee Chair Robin Walker MP also commented:
“With less than a month to go before the Autumn Statement, we hope the Chancellor will continue the work he started in his Spring Budget towards reviving and expanding the country’s struggling childcare sector.
Recognising childcare settings as the vital infrastructure that they are, my Committee believes providers should be spared the burden of having their wafer thin margins sent to the Chancellor through business rates and VAT on their purchases. Many childcare businesses feel that they are penalised by regulations that require minimum amounts of space, as this lamps them with a higher tax bill. Particularly as Government has been clear in its ambitions for this sector to expand substantially to support parents, it feels unjust that childcare businesses might cross thresholds to pay higher rates of tax purely in order to meet the demand that Government is creating.”
