ANU hits childcare providers with massive rent increases

University Preschool Child Care Centre and Heritage Early Childhood Centre have until Monday to decide whether to sign leases on two demountable buildings the ANU has commissioned to replace the existing four heritage-listed centres.

Should negotiations fall through, providers have been warned the university will put the leases out to tender. It is understood that the ANU is offering five-year leases on each of the demountables, one with annual rent of $132,000 for 110 places and the other with $108,000 rent for 90 places, starting from January 2025.

Providers of the existing community-run childcare centres have been on peppercorn leases for decades, meaning they pay the university only nominal rent.

Families have been told the university is unwilling to offer leases for longer than five years.

Parents have raised concerns that the demountable buildings, one that is already built and a second that the ANU says will be finished by mid-December, are poorly designed for younger toddlers and infants.

The university last week revealed that parents not currently employed by, or studying at, the university could not be guaranteed a place when the existing four centres close at the end of the year. This would mean about one in eight children could be turned away.

But families are concerned this figure could be doubled if infants and toddlers aged under three years are not adequately catered for, meaning a quarter of the current cohort - around 60 children - would not have a spot.

"This is the hardest age group to find childcare places for," one parent told The Canberra Times.

It is understood that the university is not offering to contribute to the costs of each of two existing providers moving and establishing an expanded service in a larger building.

The ANU released a heritage report earlier this month, which found that the existing buildings, which contain lead paint and asbestos, cannot be made suitable for ongoing use as childcare centres if hail remediation is undertaken without ministerial intervention.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the ANU along with UPCCC and Heritage said they would enter "exclusive conversations about the ongoing provision of high-quality childcare on the ANU Acton campus".

Talks were still underway about continuity of care for the existing centres' 230 children, the statement said. It said the ANU "will defer any tender process ... while discussions progress".

Proposals by Cubby House on Campus and Acton Early Childhood Centre to continue operating in their existing buildings were rejected as "not feasible from the university's perspective".