Education Secretary wants people in the UK to have more children
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has called on more young people in the UK to have children to help reverse the repercussions of a plummeting birth rate.
Writing in The Telegraph, Phillipson said too many young people were put off having families because of the huge cost of housing and childcare.
“A generation of young people have been thinking twice about starting a family; worried not only about rising mortgage and rent repayments, wary not only of the price of fuel and food but also put off by a childcare system simultaneously lacking in places and ruinously expensive,” she said.
Phillipson added that politics is about giving everyone, particularly the most disadvantaged in our country, the freedom to choose their path in life.
“It’s why I want more young people to have children, if they so choose; to realise the ordinary aspiration so many share, to create the moments and memories that make our lives fulfilling: having children, seeing them take their first steps, dropping them off at their first day at school, guiding them on their journey into the world of work or taking them to university for the first time,” she said.
“It’s why this Labour Government believes that support for families matters right from the start, and why I have made improving our early years system my number one priority.”
The Office for Budget Responsibility has previously warned that the falling birth rate could cause the national debt to soar over the next 50 years. It said deaths would consistently outnumber births in Britain from the middle of the next decade, leaving the country dependent on migration to avoid a falling population.
Why are people having kids later?
So why are people in the UK leaving it so late to have children? Research from the University of Oxford shows that:
- University-educated women only start seeing the timing of when they have children as an important decision at age 33. Before this, it seems they did not consider it a pressing issue. This contrasts with all other groups for whom baby timing is a significant factor from the youngest ages (21 for university-educated men and 18 for non-university-educated men and women). This suggests that university-educated women already face limited time to have children, as they do not consider themselves to be delaying parenthood until age 33.
- University-educated women place the highest value on having a supportive partner who is prepared to be a hands-on parent and share household and childcare responsibilities. They are prepared to give up seven years of reproductive time to have a supportive partner, compared to five years for financial stability, the next most important attribute for them.
- Non-university-educated women prioritise stable relationships and are prepared to wait as long as ten years for a stable relationship before having a/another child. Household finances are also important to this group, with women giving up around seven years of reproductive time for financial security.
- For university-educated men, their partner’s readiness to have children is the most important factor, and they would give up around seven years to have a supportive partner who is ready to have a baby. This compares with only one year to own a home.
- Non-university-educated men prioritise living in a child-friendly neighbourhood over other factors and are prepared to wait around seven years to have this attribute.
