Labour’s Corbyn pledges to tackle Britain’s childcare crisis
UK opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he will allocate 5 billion pounds to reduce the cost of childcare for families, regardless of their income, if the party forms a government in Britain.
“Opportunity matters most in the earliest years of life. It is a crucial time to open up children’s life chances. Driving up standards of childcare will make that vital difference for millions of our children,” Corbyn said in his keynote speech at his party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Wednesday.
The pledge is likely to prove popular with the cost of childcare in the UK being the highest in developed countries.
Parenthood is an expensive business in the UK. Research indicates that the cost of raising a child to the age of 21 is 230,000 pounds - more than the price of an average semi-detached house in Britain.
Hence living on just one income is not feasible for the majority of British households. Even grandparents are often still too busy making ends meet to look after grandchildren.
This is the constant dilemma facing British parents that either they should go to work and spend two-thirds of your income on nurseries and babysitters or they could stay at home with kids and lose the one-third of income that was just keeping you afloat.
According to a survey done by MoneySuperMarket.com, London is the worst and most expensive British city to raise a family.
The criteria of the survey were house prices, crime rates, average salaries and school rankings as well as access to green spaces.
“If we are to stop women dropping out of the workplace and men dropping out of their families, then childcare has to begin when parental leave ends.” Corbyn said in his speech.
Around 30 percent of British kids live in poverty, which equates to 4.1 million children. So Corbyn’s pledge has raised a lot of hope for families across the nation.
However, he also said child carers must have a degree, which many say defeats the purpose by reducing the number of carers who qualify.
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