House of Commons nursery is UK's most expensive, claims Birmingham MP
The new House of Commons nursery should be open to the children of local families as it is the “most expensive nursery in the country”, a Birmingham Labour MP has said.
Roger Godsiff said Commons authorities had effectively “wasted” £1 million on a nursery that only one child had enrolled in so far.
Earlier this year the House of Commons Commission controversially transformed a popular Westminster bar into a nursery for up to 40 children.
Mr Godsiff (Birmingham Hall Green) said £480,000 had been spent on refurbishing Bellamy’s Bar in the two years prior to the authorities’ decision, and the conversion into a nursery then cost more than £510,000.
In a Commons motion, he said the decision to convert the “extremely popular and well-used” bar had not been put to MPs for debate.
He wrote: “Out of more than 6,500 people who work on the parliamentary estate, the nursery had - on October 1 2010, one month since its opening - one child enrolled in it.”
He said he “regrets the fact that at a time when children’s nurseries, such as the Claremont Day Nursery in Sparkbrook, are being closed or are under threat throughout the country, over £1 million has been wasted at a time of austerity on an unwanted nursery which is, pro-rata to the number of children in it, the most expensive nursery in the country.”
And he added: “The nursery should now be opened up to the children of families in Westminster and other boroughs close to the House of Commons who are losing their nursery provision.”
In a written parliamentary answer in July, the House of Commons Commission said 16 people, including six MPs, had expressed a “firm interest” in nursery places.
Sir Stuart Bell, a Commission member, said at the time: “Occupancy rates for a new nursery build up over time: the House of Commons nursery has been planned on this basis.”
