Labour would increase free child care

Ed Balls. Photograph by Underclass Rising

Labour would increase the hours of free child care received by working parents to 25 hours per week, funded by a raise in the baking levy, if they won the next election according to shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

Working parents of three and four-year-old children currently received 15 hours of free childcare, but Labour have announced they would raise this by ten hours per week in England, finding the money in a £800 million per year increase in the banking levy. The money would also be provided to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to provide the extra services, but how the money would be spent would be decided by the devolved governments.

The money would be offered to families where all parents are working, whether both parents in two-parent households, or a single working parent bringing up their children alone.

Balls has also asked the government’s independent tax and spending watchdog to review his party’s economic plans.