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Landlords have been told to remove restrictive clauses in tenant contracts which prevent childminders from working from home.
Children’s minister Claire Coutinho (pictured) wrote to housing associations, social landlords and developers on the subject.
She said: “We have outstanding, high-quality childminders, offering flexible and accessible childcare in a home-like environment.
“Too often prospective childminders are having the door slammed in their faces because they face a blanket ban on working from home.”
The number of childminders operating in England has more than halved over the past 10 years, according to the Department for Education (DfE).
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, responded: “No landlord wants to stand in the way of the provision of childcare, but the government must recognise that housing providers are not the issue.
“The government’s encouragement to landlords to ‘be open-minded’ is no-doubt well-meaning but fails entirely to acknowledge the very real issues facing the childcare industry or the legitimate concerns of housing providers.
“Mortgage lenders and insurers need to be more flexible in enabling landlords to allow childminders to operate from the properties they let. Tenancy deposits must also be allowed to reflect the greater risk of damage to properties being used for childminding.
“We will continue to work with the government on the difficulties and barriers landlords face in enabling tenants to become childminders but refuse to accept the blame for systemic issues in another industry.”
Working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare from April next year, while in September 2024 this will be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months.
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