A childcare group is urging coordinated action to cut the cost of childcare on working families, as it published figures showing prices have spiked in the last five years.

The average price of a part-time nursery place for a child under two has gone up a third since 2010 and now sits at more than £6,000 a year.

The data is published in the Family and Childcare Trust’s annual report, which also revealed that costs increased 5% since this time last year.

That compares with a UK inflation rate of 0.5% and average wages increasing at just over 2% a year.

Childcare is an essential component of running a business for tens of thousands of people in the UK. Many would-be entrepreneurs have been dissuaded from starting up because of the perceived high cost of nursery places.

The report stated that successive governments have introduced measures to help with caring for children, but that rising costs are erasing any benefit from these measures.

"Successive governments have recognised the pressure that high childcare costs place on families,” the report stated.

“In 2013, the government announced increased help with childcare costs through universal credit and the new tax-free childcare scheme.

"But above-inflation increases in childcare prices have the potential to erode the value of this extra assistance, particularly in London and the South East where parents' childcare costs may easily reach the £8,000 annual maximum level for help.”

It added that right now in London the average cost of caring for a child under two on a part-time basis is £7,907.

The Liberal Democrats today set out their plans to improve the situation for working parents and business owners.

Leader Nick Clegg says the party would introduce 15 hours a week free childcare for all children of working parents between the ages of nine months and two years.