The CBI's report, Children first: the power of choice in children's services, found that heavily subsidised state provision and a failure to regulate the market is making it difficult for the independent nursery sector to survive. This could lead to a loss of places and limit parents'
choices.
The CBI highlighted the number of nursery businesses that fail. Although 626,000 new childcare places were created between 1999 and 2003, 301,000 places closed.
It blamed a number of problems for the lack of sustainability, including variable levels of demand in different areas, lack of business planning skills, a short supply of skilled workers, poor information services and poor commissioning.
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