Jeremy Hunt has defended the speed of his Budget rollout of free childcare for working parents with children under the age of five.
The expansion begins in April 2024 and will not be fully available until September 2025.
The Chancellor told Sky News the policy was “the biggest transformation” in childcare in a lifetime, but that supply needed to be expanded first.
“It is a huge change and we are going to need thousands more nurseries, thousands more schools offering provision they don't currently offer, thousands more childminders,” he said.
“We are going as fast as we can to get the supply in the market to expand.
“But it is the right thing to do because we have one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world and we know it is something that is a huge worry, for women in particular, that they have this cliff-edge when maternity leave ends after nine months, no help until the child turns three, and that can often be career ending.
“So I think it is the right thing to do for many women, to introduce these reforms and we are introducing them as quickly as we can because we want to remove those barriers to work.”
Currently, all three and four-year-olds are entitled to a free part-time nursery education place for 15 hours a week, 38 weeks a year.
Those children qualify for 30 hours of free childcare if both parents earn the equivalent of at least 16 hours a week at the national living wage, although some high-earning families are excluded from the free provision.
The new policy will provide 30 hours a week to parents of one- and two-year olds as well.
In his Budget on Wednesday, Mr Hunt said it would be worth up to £6,500 for working families.
The move has been broadly welcomed, but Mr Hunt is facing controversy over a tax break to discourage an estimated 15,000 high earners from leaving the workforce early,
Labour said the abolition of the £1.07 million lifetime pensions allowance, allowing higher earners to put more into their pensions without incurring additional tax, was the “wrong priority”.
It aims to force a vote on the issue in the Commons next week.
However, the Government says it is primarily aimed at preventing skilled workers, such as NHS consultants, from leaving work because pension rules encourage them to take an earlier retirement.
