Coram is locked in discussions with Camden Council over the future of a nursery based on its central London campus that faces closure due to an impending hike in rent.
Thomas Coram Nursery, named after the Coram’s founder, said the charity has proposed doubling its current rent to more than £240,000 within the next three years.
The nursery, based on the charity’s central London campus and headquarters, said the increases do not include service charges, which are currently £108,000 a year.
“We simply cannot afford such an increase,” said the nursery’s headteacher Perina Holness, in a letter to supporters.
Holness said Coram also wants to reduce the space the nursery uses, which “alone would make it impossible for us to continue, because of the loss of income”.
The charity said it was holding ongoing discussions with Camden Council over the nursery’s future and that it had “committed to keeping the current space for the next academic year”.
Camden Council said it aimed to secure the nursery’s future but that Coram was the freeholder of its campus and sets the rent the nursery pays.
Coram: Rent has not increased since 2016
A spokesperson for the charity said: “Coram greatly values the Thomas Coram Nursery School and wants nothing more than for it to continue to serve local children on a fair and equitable basis with all the other children and charities who use our campus.
“For this reason, the nursery’s rent has not been increased since 2016 despite the profound pressures of the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis placing growing demands on the charity.
“The future and funding of the maintained statutory nursery is a matter for Camden. We have met repeatedly with the authority, as the leaseholder, including with the nursery’s chair of governors, and are always happy to do so.
“Coram has presented multiple options to safeguard the nursery’s future at Coram, even phasing the rent rise over three years to match the rent that other charities on the Coram campus pay, which is well below the market rate.
“We are dismayed that two years after terms were agreed, Camden has yet to fulfil their stated intent, leaving their own nursery in limbo and the charity and the children we serve bearing the consequences.”
Council: ‘We have been advocating on nursery’s behalf’
A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Camden Council is determined to do everything we can to support Thomas Coram Nursery which provides nationally leading early years education in the heart of Camden.
“We already invest a significant sum each year to maintain the provision as the nursery faces risings costs.
“The nursery have been really clear with us that higher rent and critically a reduction in bespoke childcare space being proposed will severely threaten their future so we have been advocating on their behalf to try and find a solution.
“We will continue to try and work with the nursery and Coram charity to find a way to safeguard the nursery as quickly as possible.”
