Dear Editor,

TODAY’S (17 October) news story ‘Harlow MP Chris Vince welcomes Labour’s investment of over £400,000 into local family services’ is yet another bit of Labour PR spin that fails to deliver the truth on timescales.

In the article’s third paragraph it says: “1,000 Best Start Family Hubs are to be rolled out across the country by April 2026.”

However, this is not a truthful statement. The evidence is provided by a GOV.UK press release of July 6 which states:

“Backed by over £500 million, the rollout will help transform the existing Family Hubs and Start for Life programme and create up to 1,000 hubs across the country by the end of 2028.”

The slow speed at which these Hubs are to be delivered is detailed in a Section 31 Grant Determination Letter (GDL) from the Department of Education to 65 local authority chief executives dated October 14. In the summary of objectives the letter states:

“Identify at least one Best Start Family Hub site by January 2026 from which to deliver your parenting and HLE interventions. As referred to in the ‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ strategy, any Hub(s) identified should be in an area with high levels of deprivation, where support is most needed.”

The overall objective, clearly laudable, is to ensure that the 3–4-year-olds cohort in April 2026 are exposed to new interventions that achieve a good level of child development by 2028.

Just providing £404,697 across Essex may seem little, but this is just for the 2025-26 financial year. The entire project funding of £500 million for 65 local authorities is an improvement on the Conservative government’s £301.75 million funding for 75 upper-tier local authorities in their Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. It is worth noting that the Conservative’s programme contained only £81.75 million for Family Hubs.

The misleading statement provided to YourHarlow with regards to rollout timescale may be the result of Bridget Phillipson’s campaign for deputy leader of the Labour Party. This, sadly, just reinforces social media’s right-wing consensus that Labour should be renamed Liebour. I think ‘gilding the lily’ in this case was entirely unnecessary and only makes people doubt the government’s sincerity.