ECONOMIC recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic will be hampered by childcare providers going bust this winter unless the government offers more support, ministers were warned today.

One in 10 providers could close over the coming months, with as many as one in four at risk in rural and remote areas, the County Councils Network (CCN) said – even without taking a second wave into account.

The CCN, representing 36 unitary and county-council areas in England with a combined population of 26 million, said that 80 per cent of its members thought that ten per cent of nurseries and childminders in their areas were at risk.