‘Freeze the fees’: Hike in nursery charges prompts parents’ campaign
Parents Guillermo and Niina at a demonstration outside the Town Hall last month. Photograph: Josef Steen / free for use by LDRS partners
Hackney parents are today set to protest against the council’s move to hike its nursery fees and axe some of its childcare subsidies.
In April, the Town Hall approved plans for “difficult but necessary” changes to how it funds childcare in the borough amid “significant financial pressure”.
From 1 September, fees for access to council-maintained nurseries and children and family hubs are set to rise by roughly 7.5 per cent for some households.
Households with a total income of £55,000, meanwhile, will lose the subsidies they currently receive if they use these centres.
This threshold refers to combined income, meaning that if two individual incomes added together under one roof are £55,000 or higher, they will no longer qualify for financial help.
“[The decision] will ensure that some of our most disadvantaged children have access to additional support and high-quality early education and childcare,” the council stated.
The Town Hall has said the fee changes have been timed to take place at the same time the government’s expansion of free childcare for eligible parents will take effect, limiting the impact on families.
But the policy has sparked backlash from local families, with parents clubbing together to challenge a policy which some argue cancels out the national expansion of childcare support from central government due to come into force in September.
Anne, a single mother who was earning just over £55,000, said she had struggled to sustain the £900 cost of nursery per month.
She expected her fees to fall by hundreds as a result of the government doubling its free childcare provision.
Having budgeted around this, she was “shocked” by the council’s new policy, which meant she would pay £100 more per month from September.
Anne told the Citizen she has since reduced her working hours and taken a pay cut so she could be in lower income bracket while freelancing once a week.
Another parent, Mate, who gets 30 hours of free childcare, said he is considering leaving the borough and reducing work hours because of the fee changes.
Campaign group Protect Hackney Nurseries last week met with councillors and officers privately to share the findings of a borough-wide survey of families on all income bands, which saw 170 responses.
One parent from a household with a total annual income between £70,000 and £100,000, who took part, said: “It is an outrageous increase to levy on people already struggling with excessive childcare costs at such short notice.”
The vast majority (93 per cent) of respondents said childcare was causing financial strain, while 84 per cent were either ‘very’ or ‘extremely concerned’ about the impact higher fees would have on their family finances.
Three-quarters (75 per cent) said housing was causing them financial strain, while more than half (55 per cent) said they would consider working fewer hours if the changes were brought in.
Anne told the Citizen: “We want the council to just pause this change, pending another consultation and an impact study.”
During the private meeting held last week, parents from the campaign said they felt “frustrated” after asking officers to engage with their research and explain the data the council had used to reach its decision.
One attendee, Guillermo, told the Citizen that deputy cabinet member Cllr Anya Sizer “clearly cared about our concerns”.
However, he and others felt uneasy after a council officer said childcare had “always been expensive” and that parents had grown “comfortable” with subsidies.
“It has always been expensive, and that’s the problem – which is why central government has a plan, and why Hackney has its plan,” he said.
“Families did not get comfortable. They just made their financial plans according to the information they had, and now there’s suddenly a dramatic nursery fee restructure.”
Summary of the changes to current fee bands. Image: Hackney Council
A Hackney Council spokesperson said the term “comfortable” had been used in the campaigners’ survey, and was “not something brought up by council representatives”.
“The reference does not reflect the overall tone of the conversation, which was factual and respectful of all represented views,” the spokesperson said.
“Hackney Council has long subsidised local childcare, and the cost of continuing to do this has become untenable.
“We will continue to subsidise families accessing childcare in our maintained children’s centres with an annual household income below £55,000.”
Last year, the Conservative government announced it would double the amount of free childcare families can claim by September 2025, increasing the offer from 15 hours for 38 weeks of the year to 30 hours.
Gov.uk states that parents are not eligible if their child does not usually live with them, or “if you or your partner have an expected adjusted net income of over £100,000 in the current tax year”.
The Labour Party committed to this expansion ahead of its victory in the 2024 general election.
Hackney’s new scheme uses three income ‘Bands’ – effectively by gathering everyone currently in Bands 3, 4 and 5 into one.
People in Bands 1 and 2 will still receive support from the local authority, but those in Band 3 and above will no longer qualify.
Band 1 households will have roughly 56 per cent of their fees subsidised, while Band 2 households will be funded by around 46 per cent, according to Hackney Council.
The Town Hall expects the fee increases will raise up to £1.1m that it had previously expected to raise from closing two children’s centres in the borough – a policy halted after a successful judicial review in November.
In February, Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley said the council was facing a £51m budget gap between now and 2028.
The campaigners are set to march on the Town Hall this afternoon (23 June).
Update: this article was amended at 8.13am on 24 June 2025 to clarify that the new scheme will contain three income bands, down from the current five.
Update: this article was amended at 11.13pm on 25 June 2025 to include further quotes from parents.
It is a backward step to introduce the means test because when they say they need more money the council will start taking it from those with less until it becomes normal that we all have to pay for child care or beg to lady bountiful, so this is yet another Tory move by a "Labour" Council
Will likely be pushed out of work or Hackney by this decision. But the worst is the lack of time left to us to reorganise our lives in such a big way!
Having been told that our childcare costs would be nearly doubling for 2 children with only 3 months notice has been incredibly stressful. I’m shocked that the council haven’t considered their new tiering system better, or the wellbeing of local families.
Good for the parents of Hackney. It’s disappointing to hear their concerns have not been met with respect by council and they were told they’ve become too “comfortable.” Hopefully council pauses this change to do consultation and an impact study.
It’s concerning that Hackney Council can’t point to data supporting this decision. We need data driven policy, and our leaders to deliver on their campaign promises, especially with an election next year.
Heartbreaking for hardworking parents in Hackney
Such a backwards approach to a time where the government is meant to be lightening the load on parents (30 hours), rather than being taken advantage of by taking away other subsidies
What is the Labour Party’s vision? How does the council situate its policies within a broader political horizon? It’s hard to trust a party driven solely by financial motives. Hackney deserves better. It’s time to go Green.
Does Hackney Council want to clear the Borough of families who have young children? Hackney already has some of the highest rents and property prices in the whole country, and soon will have some off the most expensive childcare places for middle income earners nationwide too, which inevitble will force families to move out to more affordable Boroughs. This is sadly myself and my partner will need to be doing if we want to have more than our current one child. Hackney you have been an amazing place to live, but no longer a place its viable to raise a family for many of us!
It’s absolutely devastating as a solo parent with no family in London. I am already hugely disadvantaged by the cap on the government hours funding (if I earned 100k I lose it, whereas a couple with a combined income of £199.9k get free hours). £100k salary sounds like a lot, but with Hackney property prices and current mortgage rates/rent rates it’s quickly eaten up in bills. As a basic example – take home pay on £100k is about £5k per month, typical rent on a small two bed flat in Hackney with no outside space is about £2.5k per month, nursery fees for one child without subsidises are around £2k per month, that leaves £500 for everything else (including food, utilities and council tax), it is not doable.
I’m now having to look at moving because of this. I have lived in Hackney for years and I love it. I have no connections anywhere else, neither does my child, and I am devastated and don’t know what to do. It is becoming impossible for single parents to work, it’s so short sighted because more single parents being forced onto benefits will cost much more in the long run. No wonder the schools are closing.
Honestly what is the government thinking, how could this get signed off? No wonder birth rates are falling and schools are closing.
It's outrageous to see Labour (and not for the first time) presiding over the displacement of working class people from the area, and lecturing us on how 'comfortable' we allegedly are with having to pay for basic forms of social provision that should be free. Capitalism wants us to work, it needs to pay for us to function as workers. That means free childcare. Labour should begin with this, not Tory austerity (and money for weapons to be used in genocide and mass murder of children not so far from here). If they ever want our votes again, they need to restore and enhance childcare in Hackney.
It’s a shame to see how the Mayor is breaking her election promises. Flip flopping when she used to campaign for affordable childcare. I’m losing confidence in their governing abilities.
I’ve been a Hackney parent for 30 years. Long ago, the way we could manage with a lack of childcare provision was to create a patchwork quilt of friends and other people who had young children. This inevitably meant someone, usually the mother, stepping back from work in some way, with social and economic consequences, which continue down the decades. I cannot believe we are having these same discussions. That my young daughters face these same problems. Affordable childcare is a bedrock of a good society. Given the pressures of rent, utilities, mortgages, and the repayment of student loans, I’m astonished people still take the optimistic step to have children here at all. But Hackney Council could lead the way. So many new flats have gone into the borough, with so many new people paying council tax. As these young people move towards having families of their own, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a borough where, instead of chasing them away, we tried to accommodate their changing needs, in what is a brief, but consequential time in everyone’s lives, parents, children, and this community which surrounds them.
You Have got time between now and May 2026 to organise to kick out this mendacious Council and install a Council that truly represents the residents.