Massive hike in nursery fees

[speedymama]

My friend has just contacted me and she is furious. She received a letter from the nursery saying that the fees will be increased by 19%. This is on top of 6% increase they imposed in April. The reason they give is that energy prices means that gas and electricity bills will cost more. She and the other parents do not believe that. The nursery building is being updated so they think that is where the money is going. It is a chain nursery so I would have thought that they would have a central budget for that kind of thing.

I told her to start looking elsewhere.

Hmm, if it were an independent then I would imagine that they'd just pitched their prices too low, but I don't think that a chain would make that mistake. At the risk of being super-nosey I'd be interested to know the old and new price and where in the country the nursery is.