WORCESTER MP Robin Walker has welcomed plans to double the amount of free childcare - saying thousands of people will benefit.

The Government wants to offer 30 hours of free childcare per week during term time, a deal worth around £5,000 a year, to help combat recent years of rocketing costs.

The offer, which will apply to all three and four-year-olds where the parents are in employment from 2017 onwards, is twice the current entitlement.

In recent years Mr Walker says he's often been contacted by parents anxious about the costs.

He said: "Childcare costs can be a burden on family finances that prevents parents from working.

"We want to make it easier for those parents who do want to work, to do so.

"Doubling free childcare will make a real difference to up to 50,000 parents in the West Midlands.

"Parents will be able to return to work and hold on to more of their hard-earned money, while their children benefit from 30 hours of free, flexible childcare."

Mr Walker has now written to ministers in the department to pass on feedback from county-based childcare providers on the policy, and feed into an ongoing review about the high costs.

As parliamentary private secretary to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, he's going to be working closely with ministers in the department who are drawing up the review.

He added: "The Government is committing to increase the average childcare funding rates paid to providers, with the Department for Education due to begin a review before summer overseen by childcare minister Sam Gyimah.

"I'm looking forward to supporting Sam in this work and working closely with him and the education team to roll out more free childcare in Worcestershire.”

Experts say childcare costs now outstrip average family mortgages across the UK.

The Family and Childcare Trust has published a report last year saying average full-time childcare costs for a family with a two-year-old and a five-year-old are estimated at £11,700 a year, up 27 per cent since 2009.

The average annual mortgage was £7,207 last year.