However, the £600m underspend will not be re-allocated to the childcare budget, but returned to the Treasury, despite ongoing concerns about underfunding of 30-hour childcare.
Early years organisations have responded by saying that the decision 'beggars belief' when the sector is in crisis and have called for the funding to be used to support families and struggling providers.
The figures are contained in the detail of documents published by the Office for Budget Responsibility following the Chancellor’s budget last week.
The OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook updated projected spending on TFC shows a shortfall of £100m for 2018-19, followed by £200m in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, and a further £100m drop in 2021-22.
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