Free childcare set to be expanded in Chancellor's budget

Currently, working parents with three and four-year-olds are eligible for 30 hours of free childcare per week.

The plan, first reported by The Guardian, is believed to include 30 hours a week of childcare for parents in England with children aged one and two-year-old.

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It could also see increased funding for the current childcare programme for three-year-olds.

The move would come amid ongoing concerns about the cost of childcare, amid broader cost-of-living challenges and inflation pressures.

While full details of any expansion would come in Wednesday’s Budget, such a move would chime with the Chancellor’s hopes of getting more people back into the workplace as part of a wider bid to boost growth.

Pressed on the subject of childcare provision over the weekend, Mr Hunt had said: “We would like to help everyone. It’s expensive to do it. You can’t always do everything at once.”

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But the Chancellor has come under pressure in recent weeks to act on childcare, which is seen to be among the most expensive in the world.

Labour has promised to completely overhaul the British childcare system, labelling it “broken”.

Alison McGovern, the shadow employment minister, said that any announcement on childcare needed to be part of a “proper reform strategy”.

She told BBC Newsnight: “If we spend Budget Day tomorrow talking about childcare I’ll think that’s a good thing. And I think this is where our agenda needs to be… We need to know much more about how this is going to work.

“This can’t just be a one-day announcement and that’s it we’ll see how it works. We need proper reform.

“This has got to be part of a proper reform strategy because we know that the system’s not working at the moment.”

Nursery providers in England have raised concerns about underfunding, with complaints about the lack of government investment.