Seems absurd that Nicky Morgan the Secretary of State for Education made a speech on 24th September aiming to make children in England the best in Europe at reading. Quoting "Before children arrive in schools, our reforms to early years are helping them to acquire the language, skills and vocabulary they need to learn to read."

Then further down "We know that library users are much more likely to read in their own time than non-library users - accessing the existing 3,142 public libraries open in this country."

"Every single child and person deserves to travel the world by the power of imagination, invention and glorious words."

I would say that would be impossible to achieve without access to a local library.

Full speech can be found on http://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/Ni...in-England