LONDON MAYOR FAILING TO DELIVER CHILDCARE PLACES

12.01.00am GMT Thu 6th Jan 2005

New figures revealed today by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats shows that the Mayor is falling massively behind schedule in providing the childcare places that he pledged last year.

The figures, revealed in papers to be discussed by the Budget Committee, show that the Mayor's London Development Agency pledged to deliver 800 childcare places between April 2004 and March 2005. The latest figures show that in the first six months of the programme just 95 (12%) were created.

The figures also revealed that by the end of the financial year, the London Development Agency is set to miss 15 out of 22 targets.

London Assembly Liberal Democrat, Dee Doocey, said:-

"It is deeply worrying that so far the Mayor has failed to deliver childcare places in London. Mr Livingstone has staked a lot of effort on the commitment to provide 10,000 new places, yet the record so far is pretty dire.

"It is a real shame that the Mayor is failing to live up to the Labour Government's promise to hard working families in London to provide childcare places for their children.

"With the unemployment rate in London already the highest in the country, it is vital that the Mayor does not continue to let Londoners down and raises his game to provide affordable and attainable childcare places for parents."

ENDS

Notes to editor

The Functional Bodies' Quarterly Budget & Performance Monitoring Report - April to September 2004 will be discussed at City Hall by the Budget Committee on Thursday 6th January 2005.

Details can be found at:-

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/budgmtgs/2005/budjan06/budjan06item06Q2.pdf - Appendix D (page 40). Details can be found below.

In the Mayor's Londoner newspaper published in January, Mr Livingstone has pledged to create 10,000 new childcare places. According to the Londoner:-

"The scheme, which is called The Childcare Affordability Programme, will be jointly funded by the Mayor's London Development Agency and the government."