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An educator reads to daycare children (symbolic image): Twelve percent of the municipalities rate the investment backlog in daycare centers as serious
Photo: Monkey Business 2 / Shotshop / IMAGO
Municipalities only wanted to put around eight percent of their investments in the expansion of childcare this year - according to the state development bank KfW, this is not enough to cover the need: the investment backlog at daycare centers nationwide totals 10.5 billion euros, shared the KfW on Monday.
The differences from municipality to municipality are large.
12 percent rate the investment backlog at day care centers as serious
another 36 percent as significant
In contrast, 52 percent of the cities, districts and municipalities have little or no deficit.
Although expenditure had risen by 2020, KfW reported that it had been falling again for the past two years.
In 2022 they should be around 3.2 billion euros.
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The expansion of the day-care center is made more difficult by the sharp rise in building prices.
In addition, there are planning uncertainties as a result of the current crises.
The corona pandemic has led to a change in priorities.
The Russian war against Ukraine is also a burden, for example because more children who have fled have to be cared for.
Looking to the future, expectations diverge.
While almost every second municipality expects the investment backlog for childcare to decrease, almost a quarter assumes a further increase.
Differences between poor and rich communities
According to KfW, this is due to the different budgetary situations of financially strong and weak municipalities as well as diverging demographic developments between growing and shrinking regions.
The demand for daycare places is strongly determined by the number of births and the number of young families moving away or moving in.
"When expanding the day-care center, local authorities are faced with the challenge of providing an appropriate range of services of general interest despite the crisis environment and uncertain financial situation," said KfW chief economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib.
This requires stable investments and requires the municipalities to be adequately and reliably provided with their own financial sources such as tax revenues or allocations in the financial equalization system.
"Loans or subsidies can only partially compensate for financial gaps," said the economist.
sun/Reuters