‘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.