Ministers have announced plans to withhold £300m of grants for early intervention programmes aimed at youngsters over the next two years – just days after deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, secured £100m of new capital funding for nursery places.

Senior local government sources immediately speculated that one funding stream might have been withheld in order to fund the other. Cllr David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, did not link the two announcements in Smith Square's response to the early intervention grant cut, announced on 28 September. But he lamented the decision to axe early intervention funding.