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Kate Andrews responds to Labour's policy on childcare

Responding to Labour’s plan to expand 30 hours’ free childcare offer, Institute of Economic Affairs’ Associate Director Kate Andrews said:

“Childcare is a major contributor to the cost of living crisis families in the UK face, but more government intervention is not the answer.

“The UK has exceptionally high childcare costs within the OECD precisely because of government intervention. Red tape, especially around staff-to-child ratios, has increased burdens on providers, while others have been squeezed out of work as childminders by excessive regulation.

“The further subsidies proposed by the Labour Party won’t tackle these regulatory burdens, but merely transfer more costs to taxpayers.

“It’s time we broke the vicious cycle of subsiding childcare, which has resulted in sky-high costs once parents go over their allotted ‘free hours’. Instead, we should allow a market in childcare to flourish, giving parents more choice and cheaper price points for the care their children receive.”

Notes to editors:

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For further IEA reading on childcare, click here.

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties