The areas the place month-to-month nursery charges price greater than lease – MAPPED

The knowledge present that nowhere do nursery prices tower larger over lease than in Kingston upon Hull.

Full-time personal preschool prices for one baby got here to £907 a month within the East Yorkshire port metropolis, a full £279 greater than the £628 common lease for a three-bedroom residence.

The second-biggest worth disparity was present in Walsall within the West Midlands, the place nursery prices £250 greater than lease a month, adopted by Swindon (£242) and (£153).

Although nursery charges in London are by far the steepest within the UK at £1,553 a month, persistently sturdy demand for rental properties means tenants within the capital fork out £2,459 for a home on common.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of instructional charity Early Years Alliance, instructed Express.co.uk: “The fact that monthly nursery and pre-school costs are at least £100 more than rent for seven in ten UK towns is unsurprising but extremely concerning.

“No family should be priced out of accessing early years care and education, but, years of underfunding have left nurseries, pre-schools and childminders with no choice but to raise fees simply to keep their doors open.”

While all three to four-year-olds in England are entitled to 570 free hours of early education annually, this works out to just 15 hours per week over 38 weeks of the year.

Full-time employees in the UK work a 36.6-hour week on average, making nursery, a babysitter or family help necessary for most. It is also increasingly common for one parent in a working couple to give up their job entirely in favour of childcare.

Getting people back to work was central to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget, unveiled in March. His statement ended with a pledge to offer 30 hours of free childcare for every child from the age of nine months for households where all adults work.

He claimed the package was worth £6,500 a year for a family with a two-year-old currently using 35 hours of private childcare a week, and would thus reduce their costs “by nearly 60 percent.”

Mr Leitch added: “If that wasn’t bad enough it seems likely that the Government’s expansion to the 30-hour offer is only going to heap further pressure on providers who are already pushed to the brink both in terms of capacity and budget.

“It is completely important, subsequently, that the federal government each consults with the sector when implementing their growth plans and correctly funds the sector, not solely to make sure that prices for folks and suppliers don’t improve additional, however that much more settings don’t shut.”