Lord Davies calls for childcare reform to close City gender gap

The new Conservative administration should undertake deep-seated reform of the childcare system to address the gender imbalance among corporate executives, according to Lord Mervyn Davies, head of a government-sponsored task force.

Lord Davies's suggestions for childcare, which include introducing tax credits and creating large nursery centres across the UK, go far beyond prime minister David Cameron's new childcare bill, which doubles the amount of free childcare that working families with 3- and 4-year-olds receive, to 30 hours a week.

"We've got to fix childcare in the UK," Lord Davies told the Financial Times. "You can't do that as a CEO. But I would hope that this new government would have this as one of its top priorities."

Lord Davies, who was minister for trade under the last Labour administration and is now chairman of private equity firm Corsair Capital, was speaking at an event held by the FT's City Network, a private forum of top City figures.

The veteran banker's 2011 task force report on women in business set voluntary targets for women on boards. Big company boardrooms are on track to hit a tally of 25 per cent women - double the 2010 number - this year.

Lord Davies is now turning his attention to the more challenging task of how to help boost the proportion of women among companies' executive ranks.

The Davies Review is expected to outline goals on developing the pipeline of women in companies later this year. Many promising female executives never reach the most senior ranks because they do not return to work after having children.

Lord Davies said: "I think if we're going to stay competitive as a nation, if we're really going to nurture female talent, childcare is the elephant in the room. We've got to tackle it as an issue. It's [about] restructuring the tax system and it's also maybe creating large centres around the UK. We need a commission to look at it as a matter of urgency."

Analysis by the FT published early this year found that just 19.5 per cent of senior roles across the top City employers are held by women. The proportion is lowest at investment banks, where 16 per cent of managing directors are women.

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