On the face of it, the latest annual report from Laing and Buisson indicates a healthy day nursery market, with 20 per cent growth in the past 12 months, making it worth 3.2bn, three times bigger than it was in 1990.
The report says the chief drivers of this growth have been increased demand from parents facilitated by expanding capacity and higher fees, up 4.5 per cent in 2004. But closer scrutiny of the figures in Laing and Buisson's Children's Nurseries UK Market Report 2005 indicates that supply is outstripping demand in many areas, that occupancy levels are falling, and all this is happening before the impact of the Government's children's centre programme becomes fully apparent.
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