CHILDREN’S minister Margaret Hodge has hinted for the first time that Camden could be in line for fresh investment to ease its childcare crisis.
Asked by the New Journal on Tuesday night whether the government would earmark cash to solve a chronic lack of affordable nursery places in Camden, Ms Hodge said: “You will have to wait. You must wait for our 10-year strategy.
“It is not that far away. It will be in December. It is a bit of a waiting game.”
The minister then hurried to a car to be driven to Parliament where she voted against foxhunting.
She was speaking outside the Irish Centre in Camden Square, Camden Town, where she helped launch Camden’s childcare strategy, a masterplan to help the borough’s 40,000 children and young people.
The contents of the government’s new childcare strategy are being kept carefully under wraps until an announcement early next month.
But Ms Hodge’s advice to wait for policy news has been interpreted as a hint that Camden’s campaign for investment in childcare could prove successful.
The New Journal revealed the extent of the crisis for places in September when Marion Kozak, mother of schools’ minister David Miliband and chairwoman of Camden’s childcare strategy, warned that private nurseries were too expensive at £250 a week, while affordable places have already been snapped up.
Education boss Councillor Nick Smith wrote to Ms Hodge demanding action.
On Tuesday, Cllr Smith said: “We must see how much money is going to be on the table but it is good she has acknowledged what we are saying.”