UK parents: are your children’s nursery costs increasing in January?

The UK has the second most expensive childcare in the OECD. Photograph: Folio Images/Alamy

Government spending on free childcare for young children in England is set to fall by eight per cent in real terms over the next two years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

As bills increase and nursery budgets are further squeezed, many will have to raise prices or close, leaving parents who are already struggling with little choice but to foot the higher bill.