Who owns all these super lucrative nurseries in the UK?

[coxesorangepippin]

Shameless thread about a thread

Almost 50k per year to send a child to nursery?

Brother used to pay £50 a day, that's up North, and 8 years ago now.

Who is taking the profit from all these nurseries?

There are some very odd myths being perpetuated on this thread

You have no idea where that money is coming from though... Unless there's no other income for the house?

Owner of local nurseries in my area, owned by husband and wife so they are the only income, they live in a mansion he drives a very nice ferrari and their 2 kids go to private school.

Our nursery is currently £85 a day and it's due to go up 10% in April (Kent)

We have two kids in full time which is costing us nearly 3k a month. We both have good jobs but wow I can see why a lot of women don't return to work after maternity

I'm sure there are reasons for the fees but it is painful every month sending someone that much money. Especially when it's nearly 3 times your bloody mortgage!

This was the case for me too. With the hours we needed.

And we needed stability too, there is no cover if a child minder is ill. And didn't have to worry about holidays either.

I don’t know for sure, no. But have just looked on Companies House, and the company has pretax profits of £1.6m. The business premises are all owned by one of the two directors, who receives £475k in rent each year, so I think their lifestyle is due to the nursery business.

Nice. I'm in the wrong business!

£65 a day is easily £1200-1500 a month. If you're "only" earning £1950 a month it's a killer

^^

This. If you can't afford it, what do you do? Give up work?

Why isn't it subsidized? It's another elitist problem

It IS subsidised!!

You can get government help to pay 20%. Local councils help funding too. You get 15/30 hours funded care as well after a certain time.

And yeah... You (read women) give up work.

If you have twins and it costs you £2500 per month, and your household income is £3500 p/M What else can you do?

Government top up is only 2k per annum

How on earth do NHS workers on band 5 and below ever manage to have children in the London area? Must have a knock on effect on recruitment.

But £100 a day is £10 a hour - not a million miles from £6 an hour ( obviously makes a difference to wages, but it’s not going to make a nursery owner a billionaire )

No I agree that's why all early years s settings are suffering closures, especially when funding is less than normal fees, but ratios are higher for nurseries so it's not a straight comparison

Well, that depends, right? If your work is not meaningful and you earn just enough money to cover nursery, sure.

But if your work is inventing the Covid vaccine, it looks different. Or simply if it provides you with meaning, or helps others, or earns a big enough surplus to spend on other things that are important for any number of reasons, it's different.

Let's not write off nursery work as useless quite yet.

£50k a year?

That's £200 a day

Nah. Not
Typical

Nursery chains are increasingly owned by private equity firms:
https://www.ft.com/content/96bc7e0d-39e5-4a01-9c97-173dbe2b0e89

Exactly, and I bet none of them would work for minimum wage!

Did you mean to be such a crashing snob?

Everyone’s work is “meaningful” even the scum on minimum wage 🙄. You’d soon be complaining if there were no waiting staff in your favourite restaurants or your bins didn’t get emptied or your supermarket delivery didn’t turn up.

I agree with you.

I don't think the snobs realise just how many important jobs are minimum wage.

I absolutely agree. A job being meaningful and a job being well-paid are two very different things.

I clearly expressed myself badly if I managed to covey almost the opposite of my point

If one's job is neither meaningful nor well-paid (two different things) then I can see why, like the poster I was replying to, it might seem pointless going out to work just to pay that out to a nursery ("just another spreadsheet with numbers on, nothing else"). I disagree though.

I don't think childcare is "nothing else". It is both a meaningful and important job in its own right, and a crucial enabler to much of the rest of the world of work. Which, whether well-paid or not, is where a lot of valuable stuff happens, stuff that is meaningful to the people who can stay in work, and those who rely upon them, and those (like the Covid vaccine example) who benefit from the efforts of countless working women, and men, some of whom could not have have done that work without childcare arrangements.

I posted earlier about NHS workers on band 4 or 5 or below. They do vital jobs and outpatient clinics would not run without them. So the NHS would be fucked pretty much.

Or anywhere else in the UK. This is us. We are TTC but probably going to be one and done. Don’t see how we will afford it twice.

@thenightsky I was that B3 NHS worker with 2 kids and single parent..luckily quite a few years ago, mortgage not extortionate, and frugal living, would not be able to do it now with mortgage amounts/rates..downright impossible!