Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson urged the UK’s competition regulator to probe the role played by private equity firms in the £9.5 billion ($12.8 billion) government-funded childcare market, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government seeks to bear down on living costs.
Phillipson has asked the independent Competition and Markets Authority to examine “hidden childcare fees” hitting families, the Department for Education said late Monday in a statement. It cited non-refundable deposits paid by parents to put their children on waiting lists to receive child-minding services and extra charges for items such as nappies and suncream.
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