The leader of North Lincolnshire Council has welcomed the announcement in the Spring Budget that childcare costs are set to be slashed for hundreds of working families across the area.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, announced a plan to expand 30 hours free childcare for children over the age of nine months, alongside boosts to subsidised childcare for parents on Universal Credit, including upfront support.
The council already works with local childminders and nurseries that provide free childcare for children aged three and four and will extend this to younger children.
Rob Waltham, leader, North Lincolnshire Council, said: “There have been some significant challenges to overcome nationally and locally, not least the inflationary pressures but also enabling people back into work.
“The new measures announced in the budget will have a direct impact on the money people have in their pockets across North Lincolnshire – helping working families, continuing the support to pay energy bills and creating many incentives to get people into work and enable them to earn more.
“Our plan locally continues and these new measures will work together with the existing support – and hard cash – we’ve received from Government to create a new, different future for all the communities across North Lincolnshire.”
The Spring Budget – which can be read in full here – included an extension of the energy price guarantee, limiting gas and electricity tariffs for a further three months until the summer when wholesale rates are expected to have fallen further.
The fuel duty freeze and 5p cut has been extended by one year, £20bn was announced for the development of carbon capture and storage projects across the UK – with many of the leading projects already in development in and around the River Humber.
Plans to fund schools and local authorities to increase the supply of wraparound care so all parents of school-age children can drop their children off between 8am and 6pm were announced too.
£200m will be made available for potholes and leisure centres will be able to tap into a pot of £63m to help keep swimming pools operating.
